Pretend You Love Me
by Girl in Blue
Summary: When Sam hears that she will be the victim of an arranged marriage she asks Danny to help her drive the cute and billionaire fiancée away by pretending to be her boyfriend. DxS. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

**Pretend You Love Me**

**Chapter One**

It was a normal day of school of the normal Amity Park city. Three not so normal teens were all seated down pretending to pay attention in the boring class that Mr. Lancer decided to give inside the chronogram of the English Class. That class was really rare and useful, the subject was "debating" and only a girl named Sam Manson was interested in it.

"For next week," Mr. Lancer said, writing on the board while talking. "We'll divide the class in two groups and each will use the right arguments and skills to defend the subject we'll establish."

"Excuse me, Mr. Lancer." Paulina raised her hand, blinking quickly with her long lashes that made all boys in the class sigh in contentment.

"Yes, Paulina?"

"Can we discuss something interesting at least, like popular students, fashion or something like that?" She asked, sweetly.

"I was going to suggest a discussion about the importance of school uniforms." Mr. Lancer said. "I think it fits the fashion thing you suggested." Paulina agreed, contently, saying that she would like to be on the group against uniforms and Sam immediately stretched her hand. "Yes, Miss Manson?"

Sam wrinkled her nose in discontentment when she realized nobody was pleased to see that she was interrupting the class. Her best friends, Danny and Tucker were the only ones that actually were interested in what she was going to say.

"I was wondering if we could discuss something more useful. It's not like the subject of School Uniforms really matter, it's just about avoiding the school to become a teen version of Fashion Week, but since our school won't take uniforms I think it's a pointless discussion."

"And what subject you suggest?" Mr. Lancer asked her, noticing the fury in Paulina's eyes that shot Sam a glance of pure hate.

"I suggest Political views, International Affairs or a simply discussion of Philosophy like Skepticism." She replied. "I think it's much more useful to develop a strong line of thoughts that could lead to useful conclusions."

"Ok, so let's be less vague, please." Mr. Lancer said. "What do you suggest we discuss into Skepticism?"

"There's lots of interesting subjects we can discuss;" Sam said wisely, realizing that her friends were looking at her proudly; "For example, does UFOs exist? Does psychology really work? Is there a God? Does love exist? Things like that."

"You know, I think that's interesting." Paulina's hate finally died down. "Can we discuss love, then?" She asked the teacher.

"Fine." Mr. Lancer agreed. "We need two groups. One that believe in love and other that doesn't, just remember that you will have to defend your argument and it doesn't have to be based on your opinions."

"Can I be the leader of the group that believes in love?" Paulina asked.

"Sure."

"And if you don't mind, I'd like to be the leader of the other group." Sam smiled, satisfied with herself.

"Ok, so, next week we'll debate." Mr. Lancer concluded just when the bell rang.

Everyone stood up and picked up their books. Sam closed her book bag while Danny and Tucker waited for her by the door.

"Are you sure you can handle the discussion, Sam?" Danny grinned, walking by her side on the corridor, going to their lockers.

"Of course, Paulina doesn't know how to use valid arguments, this discussion will be easy." She smiled.

"Just be careful to not damage her reputation, she already hates you just for being yourself, I wouldn't like to see you in a fight as much as I enjoy to see women fights." Tucker joked, opening his locker.

"Whatever." Sam smiled. "I'll meet you two in Gym Class." She said, walking off to the girl's locker room.

She opened the door and stepped inside already seeing Paulina smiling in her tight shorts and shirt, admiring herself in the mirror. Sam waved 'hi' to Valerie who smiled at her. Both girls weren't close friends because of the awkward situation with Danny, but they didn't hate each other.

Valerie left the room, followed by Paulina, Star and few other girls, leaving Sam completely alone.

Sam changed quickly, carefully locking her clothes so that nobody would do anything funny to them. She had been victim of pranks before, once someone hid her bra and she had to spend the rest of the school day hiding her chest with books.

She opened the door of the Locker Room and found the corridor outside completely empty. She frowned, suspiciously, but walked to Gym anyway. She saw Danny and Tucker were already there, on the other half of the gym and started walking towards them, only to be splashed by a huge water balloon that was thrown in her direction from the highest seats.

Paulina laughed, seeing the Goth girl wet from hair to toe giving her a nasty look. Paulina would have been murdered right there if Danny and Tucker hadn't run to Sam, holding her back and pulling her towards the Locker Room once again.

"Let me go! I will kill her!" Sam said, fighting their grip.

"You don't want to be suspended and miss the debate next week, Sam." Tucker said. "Lancer will fail you."

"Besides I won't let go back in there like _this_." Danny said. Sam looked at him in confusion and noticed that he was blushing a lot. She wondered why he was so red and looked down at herself… only to realize that her Gym shirt was white and it was plastered against her chest and that her chocolate bra was completely visible.

"I'm going to murder her slowly and painfully." She said, darkly. "I'll rip her limbs one by one…"

"Look at the bright side." Tucker tried to humor the situation up. "You gave us a personal wet T-shirt contest."

"You pervert!" She hit Tucker on the head making him hold his head in pain and in the process making Sam's mood much lighter.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sam convinced Danny to go ghost and take her home so that she could change. While flying he complained about not understanding why she had to go home when her spare clothes were completely dry and she answered sincerely, knowing it would make him blush terribly:

"My shirt is dry, but my bra and panties are soaked. I have to change or else I'll catch a cold."

Danny blushed and landed on her room, putting her on the ground and sitting down on her bed, waiting for her to get changed. Sam walked to her closet and grabbed a new pair, but when she was about to exit the room to go to the bathroom, she heard the voice of her parents outside the door.

"This is Samantha's room."

The door knob was turning open when Danny flew to Sam holding her close and turning her invisible. The last thing they wanted was for the Mansons to see their daughter home two hours earlier dripping wet with the boy they disliked.

"She likes black a little too much for our taste, but that's something you can change with time." Mrs. Manson said to the visitors.

The visitors were two men, one looked around his forties and the other was a young blond teen around his seventeen years old with piercing dark green eyes.

"She's a very conscious girl, always thinking about others." Mr. Manson said. "You'll like her a lot, Kyle." He patted the boy on the shoulder.

"She sounds like a very interesting person." The boy smiled and they exited the room, closing the door behind them.

Danny let go of Sam, making them both visible again. They stood there, puzzled.

"What was that about?" Danny asked, looking at her for answers, but Sam just shook her shoulders, as confused as he was.

"I have no idea. It was like they were selling me along with the house or something." She managed to joke. "Well, I'll find out sooner or later." She smiled. "I can't go out to change, so just turn around and don't peek."

"Yes, ma'am." Danny said, turning around. "Have you seen those guys before?" He asked, deciding that conversation would make the situation less awkward.

"No, I've never seen them." She answered. Danny heard the noise of her skirt being unzipped and gulped. "By what I've heard, they sounded very comfortable with each other; maybe they're some rich friends of my parents."

"Yeah, maybe. It's a good thing I moved fast and turned us invisible." Danny said, proudly.

"Yep. Thanks for that." She grinned. "And you can turn around now." He turned and saw that she was wearing a new shirt. "You know… since we're out of school, what about a walk in the park? I'm not in the mood to see Paulina again."

"Well, I'm always on the mood to see her." Danny smiled, knowing that he was annoying his best friend. "But I'm a good guy and I'll make my friend happy. Let's head to the park."

He grabbed her by the waist and flew out of the room.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

After a very exciting day in the park with her best friend, Sam opened the door of her house, walking inside. She grinned to herself remembering how she teased Danny until he bought her an ice cream, and then chased after him when he decided to tickle her in front of everybody. She ended throwing him in the lake and ran away before he could catch her.

When she stepped in the living room, she spotted her parents seating across the two men from earlier, chatting animatedly. As soon as they saw her, her parents pulled her into the conversation, introducing her to the guests.

The older one was called John Miles and his father had married Sam's grandma's sister and Kyle, the younger one, was Sam's cousin.

"Nice to meet you Samantha." Kyle said, kissing Sam's hand in a gentleman greet.

"Nice to meet you too and the kiss in the hand is something really old-fashioned." She grinned, taking her hand back.

"Sammy, manners, please." Her mother warned.

"Yes, mother." She rolled her eyes. "Excuse me, I must do my homework."

"I'm sure homework can wait." Mr. Manson said, making his daughter to sit down by Kyle' side. "We were just talking about Miles' fortunate life in California, they own a huge house, isn't that right, John?"

"Yes, we do." John said, smiling broadly at Sam. The whole situation looked surreal to her. What was she doing sitting there? "And we own an oil company that Kyle will inherit as soon as he turns eighteen."

"That's nice to see his future is already settled." Sam commented. "But I think it's much more rewarding when you fight for your dream, you know. Isn't it boring to have everything and you're so young? Where's the challenge?" She smiled.

"My dear, Samantha," Kyle interrupted her passionate speech. "The challenges in life come in many forms, not just in a high status quo."

"I completely agree." Sam said, "But I'm not criticizing you for being rich, it would be very hypocrite of me. I'm just saying that I wouldn't accept this offer if it was me. My life would be boring if I had everything and could do whatever I wanted."

"The challenge would be in raising a family, I guess." Mr. Miles laughed.

"Family?" Sam echoed, suspiciously. She had a feeling that maybe these guests had second intentions. "I would never raise a family." She pretended to laugh. "I want to live free without being attached to anyone. I don't think I can be attached, actually. I had this conversation with mom before," She looked at her mother who blushed furiously, already knowing where Sam was going to lead the conversation. "Marriage is for fools."

"And why would you think that?" Kyle asked, slightly disappointed.

"She likes to think she'll never find a suitable match for her." Mrs. Manson laughed. "But here you are." She said, making Sam looking at her and paled immediately. "Sammy, Kyle Miles is here to take you as his fiancée. When you turn eighteen and finish high school, you will get married, isn't it wonderful?"

Sam was taken by surprise, feeling like she had taken a full blow of ectoplasm in her chest. How could her parents arrange a marriage to her? Didn't they think of what she really wanted for her life? What would Danny say?

"No… actually, it's not wonderful." Sam replied, darkly, wiping the smiles from everybody's face. "I just said that I don't want to get married."

"Don't be a fool, dear; you can't be single forever, where's your pride as a woman?" Mrs. Manson replied.

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked, confused and furious.

"One day all of your friends will be married with children, living a decent life. Can't you see how important it is? It's the course of life. There's nothing more wonderful in a woman's life then gift their husband with a new life." Mrs. Manson said, her eyes shining with passion in what she believed in.

"Well… you know that's not my wish." Sam said simply. "I refuse your offer, Mr. Miles, I'm sorry." She stood up and was ready to leave the room when Kyle held her hand, making her turn around impatiently and wait for him to talk.

"I'm sorry our parents got us in this mess. Would you rather know me first?"

"You misunderstood me." Sam tried to back away, but he was insistent.

"I'm not standing here as your fiancée;" He explained. "I'm here as a boy who is very interested on you. You could agree on going in a date with me, away from our parents if it makes you feel better." He blinked at her.

"Well, I can't, I'm busy with school and the protests I participate. It would be great to have a friend, if you'd like to give me your email address I'd gladly chat with you online."

"Ok." He replied and gave her the email. "By the way, I'm staying for a while, I hope you don't mind."

"Well… thanks… you see… I'll have to go finish my homework." She said, turning around and running to her room.

She locked herself inside her room and suddenly felt suffocated, as if the walls were pressuring her. Her clock indicated that it was half past nine which meant that either Danny was home or arriving pretty soon. She opened her closet and grabbed a rope she made a few years ago to climb out of her room's window.

She tied its ends on her bed and started climbing down. She clumsily fell on the bushes when she was halfway down, cutting her arm. The wound was small and she wasn't feeling much pain, so she stood up and ran far away from her house as fast as she could.

Unconsciously, she walked to Danny's house. It was too late for a normal visit, so she walked around the side of the house where Danny hid a ladder in case she or Tucker needed to go to his room without been seeing.

She knocked on his window, but he didn't open it. She sighed and tried to open it from outside, surprisingly succeeding. She climbed into his room only to find Danny asleep on his bed, under the covers. His hair was damp and smelling like some male shampoo he used.

Smiling for a moment and forgetting why she was so upset, she kneeled down beside him, watching his sleeping face. The covers were bunched down on his waist while he was sprawled on his stomach, snoring loudly.

"Danny, wake up." She whispered in his ear, not wanting to scare him or be heard by his parents.

"Uhh." He groaned, turning his face to the other side.

Sam, annoyed, decided to poke him. "Wake up!" She repeated.

"Go away." He said in a muffed voice.

"Danny, please, I have to talk to you… and why are you asleep so early, anyway?" She kept poking him, standing up and kneeling on the bed to reach both his sides.

"I'm just tired." He answered, sleepily. "And you shouldn't be here in the first place." He moved slightly, knocking her knee off and making her accidentally fall down on him, sitting on his butt, making him groan again.

Pretty comfortable where she was, she put her legs on his sides, still sitting down, hoping she was crushing him enough to keep him awake.

"Since you're up there, would you mind giving me a massage?" He grinned, never opening his eyes.

"Only if you talk to me." She answered. "This is very serious." She started running her fingers over his back, realizing immediately how sore he might be feeling. "You got a lot of knots." She said.

"Mmmph. Yeah… I fought Skulker after you left the park today." He said, trying to make her feel regretful.

"Anyway," She interrupted him, moving her fingers skillfully over his back. "I went home and had the most surreal experience in my life... and remember that we fight ghosts."

"That might have been quite an experience." He chuckled.

Sam stopped massaging him back, to show him it was no time for jokes. She felt him tense and finally was satisfied that he seemed to be taking her seriously.

"There were two men in my house, talking to my parents." She said, staring at his back. She noticed that he opened his eyes. "Father and son. They were the same from earlier." She explained. "I understood why they were there." She sniffed, finally realizing how much the situation had stressed her out.

Danny moved under her, trying to flip over. Sam climbed out from him and sat on the bed, while he sat up to pay attention to what she was saying. He had a frown on his face.

"That serious?" He asked, seeing that her eyes were filling up with tears.

"Yes." She nodded. "That boy, Kyle… my parents promised me to him. I'm supposed to marry him when I turn eighteen." She sobbed.

"But you said you don't want to, right?" Danny asked, worriedly.

"I said that and ran away." She said, hiding her face in her hands.

"Do you think they'd force you?" Danny asked, worriedly. He put a hand on her back trying to calm her down.

"They will insist, but I don't think they'd force me." She sniffed. "They know what I can do to get that Mr. Rich off by back."

"Yeah… I remember a similar situation with a certain prince Aragon…" He chuckled. "So, what's the problem, then?" He asked.

"Kyle is the problem. He said he's staying for a while!" She looked at him desperately.

"Do you think he'll try to do something to you? Like stalk?" Danny asked.

"I don't know, I just met him." She sighed in frustration. "He's asking me out."

"He's the type who can't take a hint?" Danny half laughed at the clueless guy.

"He took the hint, but he's insistent." She replied, annoyed.

"Well, you'll have to hang with me and Tucker all the time, then." Danny said. "If he comes close to you he won't be able to talk to you in private or anything."

"So, you're going to help me?" She smiled slightly.

"Sure, that's what friends are for." He hugged her, trying to cheer her up. "Now. Miss Manson, about this afternoon when you pulled me into the lake…"

Sam laughed, already knowing what was to come.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sam was once more sitting in a classroom, this time being the victim of the Math teacher. She was bored and worried. Danny tried to cheer her up by passing her funny notes, but she never answered them, just smiling back at him.

When there were ten minutes left for the last period to end, someone knocked on the door, interrupting the class. The teacher opened the door and everybody was stunned by the secretary walking inside the classroom with a huge bouquet of red roses.

"Samantha Manson?" She called out with a smile.

Sam blushed so hard she felt like passing out. She hit her forehead on the desk to hide her face. The class erupted in giggles and admiring glances. The teacher pointed at the girl and the secretary put the flowers on her desk.

"Congratulations dear, he's very handsome." She grinned before walking away.

"Aren't you going to read the card, Sam?" Valerie asked from across the room and all the students agreed (except for Danny, who already knew from who it was) shouting in choir for her to read it. Even the teacher was smiling at the girl's embarrassment.

Sam took the card and read it. She was going to pocket it, blushing madly when Paulina, shaking with jealously took it from her hand and decided to read it out loud.

"_To my dearest soon-to-be wife. Love, Kyle Miles._" Paulina looked up to Sam, as did the whole class. "Kyle Miles? The young businessman? The one who was the cover of the People Magazine last week?"

"Thank you for shouting it to the world." Sam groaned, sarcastically, snatching the card back.

The class was in silence, not believing what they had just heard. Samantha Manson, the loser of the school, the Goth girl nobody paid attention to, was going to be the wife of the richest and youngest businessman in the world.

The bell rang and Sam stood up quickly, running away from the classroom before anyone could say a word. She didn't even stop by her locker, she ran out of the school. As soon as she stepped outside, she saw a black limousine parked on the other side of the street and a young man leaning against it.

'Shit!' She thought. She looked around quickly, trying to run away before he saw her, but she didn't have the time, Kyle spotted her and grinned, walking in her direction. She tried to walk back into school, pretending she forgot something, but he cornered her against the wall, putting his arms on her sides, so that she wouldn't escape.

"Did you like the flowers?" He asked sweetly.

"You shouldn't have done that." She said, trying to show him he didn't have her under his control just because of some flowers. "It was really embarrassing." She said, trying to move away from him, when his grin disappeared.

"I didn't mean to embarrass you." He said quietly.

"But you did." She replied.

"Can I take you to dinner tonight as an apology?" He tried.

"No, she can't." Danny showed up, far behind him, Tucker stood watching the scene, holding Sam's bouquet.

"And who are you?" Kyle let go of Sam, not intending to be impolite to anybody. The boy standing before him looked just like a small teenager who was friends with his fiancée.

"I'm Danny Fenton, Sam's boyfriend."

**New Fanfic! Yay! Now I'm waiting for the reviews!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two **

"Did you hear?" People started gossiping in the corridors between classes. "Fenton and Manson are dating and he faced the billionaire Kyle Miles for her."

"Grrr. I can't take all this gossip!" Sam cried out in frustration, sitting on their usual table for lunch.

"I'm sorry, Sam, I didn't mean to make it worse." Danny apologized for the fourth time that day.

"I already said its okay." She gave him a small smile and squeezing his hand gently. "At least Kyle didn't try to talk to me yesterday. I think he's finally leaving me alone."

Tucker had just joined their table, bringing all the meat he could carry with him, he was staring back at the door of the cafeteria slightly uncomfortable.

"You just said that Kyle guy is leaving you alone?" Tucker asked, pointing at the door where Kyle, himself was standing, chatting with a couple of seniors students.

"What is he doing here?" Sam hissed, angrily.

"He's sponsoring the school's dance, which gave him free access in here." Tucker said. "I just happened to hear him saying something about a 'Valentine Ball' and a fancy buffet."

"He's stalking me!" Sam clenched her teeth, slamming her fists loudly on the table, making Tucker's meal jump half feet in the air.

"He wouldn't dare." Danny said, eyeing Kyle dangerously. His eyes flashed green for a moment of two. "Not after what I said yesterday."

"Guess what, genius." Tucker continued "He's asking the students about your relationship."

"WHAT?" Sam stood up. "He crossed the line!" She marched up to the boy who was smiling broadly at her, illuminating the whole room with his bright and perfect teeth.

"Sammy, are you having a good time?" He asked politely.

"Don't call me that and what are you doing here?" She put her hands on her hips, tapping her foot impatiently. Danny and Tucker, along with almost every student in the cafeteria, turned their heads to watch the couple fight.

"I heard the school never threw Valentine Ball because of lack of sponsors, I just thought it would be a nice thing to do. This is your school after all." He smiled.

"Don't lie to me." She lowered her voice so that nobody would hear her but Kyle. "You're stalking me."

"I'm not." He replied, offended. "I'm just doing good deeds. In the way…" He grinned. "I heard some very interesting gossips about you and your boyfriend. A girl named Paulina told me you aren't dating Danny because he's in love with a girl named Valerie."

"Paulina is not my friend so she doesn't know about Danny and me." Sam answered fast, hoping she'd be a good liar.

"Your teacher, Mr. Lancer, said you two were never together, just close friends." Kyle smiled even more, realizing he was cornering the girl even more.

"You're investigating me?" She said, unbelieving her ears.

"No, of course not. But I still don't understand why you deny me a date."

"Please, just understand this: I don't want you." She said, considering spelling it out for him.

"I understand, but I really like you." He insisted. "You don't have to pretend to be with him, because even if it is true, it's just a teen crush, right? I can wait my whole life for you." He tucked her hair behind her ear, smiling gently at her.

Sam couldn't believe what he was saying. She was surprised that he saw through Danny's lie (he had sounded very possessive of her the day before, nobody would doubt his words that moment), but was furious that he was so insistent. He was very polite and cute, true, but his words were awfully annoying.

"I am dating Danny!" She practically shouted it, making the whole cafeteria go silent, as if frozen by her words. "Whether you believe it or not, I love him and he loves me; we're together and happy in the present time and I don't give a damn about the future!"

Kyle looked surprised and hurt at the same time. Sam turned around and stormed out of the cafeteria. Kyle looked around and immediately noticed that he had just been put down in public and that soon the gossip would be out in the papers.

Danny stood up quickly, feeling all the eyes turn to focus on him. He ran out of the cafeteria, looking for Sam, who he feared might me punching a wall, or worse.

He saw her in the end of the corridor, entering the girl's bathroom, her beautiful face set in a scowl. He knew he was in danger of being murdered in the spot if he faced her now, but he wouldn't let her alone after that fight.

"Sam?" He tentatively pushed the door open. He saw her sitting in a corner, hugging her knees while crying softly. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. "I can haunt him if you want me to." He said, happy that he managed to make her smile.

"I'm sorry I screamed that we were together." She apologized. "I ruined your chance with Valerie."

"Don't worry about her now." He kneeled in front of her, putting his hands on top of hers. "I'm going to help you get rid of that cocky punk and then we can fix everything." He smiled.

"I don't think we can do anything about him." She said, sincerely. "He's staying at my house for a while… I don't know how long it will be, it can be months."

"Of course we can!" Danny grinned. "I can pretend to be your boyfriend until he's gone if you'd like." He blushed.

"You're kidding me." Sam's eyes widened; "Danny, we can't, what about Valerie? And the Ball? Don't you want to go with her?"

"I'd love to," He sighed. "Do you think he'll go before the ball?"

"I doubt it, if he's sponsoring it…" Sam shrugged. "Really, we'll think of something, you don't have to sacrifice yourself because of that idiot." And feeling a little better to know she had Danny by her side, she hit his arm playfully. "And weren't you supposed to meet Valerie before lunch is over?"

"Oh, crap, I forgot it!" Danny stood up, but was reluctant in letting Sam by herself.

"You can go, silly. If Kyle comes after me he'll get a date with my boot." She grinned.

"Fine I'll go, but please be careful." He said, kissing her temple before leaving the bathroom.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Later that night, Sam was in her room finishing her Math homework hearing the Radiohead CD when someone knocked on her door. She held her breath fearing that the person outside her room might be Kyle.

"Who is it?" She called, walking closer to the door, but not unlocking it.

"It's me, dear." Mrs. Manson said through the door.

Sam breathed again, opening the door, working on the best annoyed look she could.

"What is it?" She crossed her arms over her chest.

"I just wondered if you'd like to have dinner with us." She said. "You've been here since you arrived. It's like you're avoiding us."

"Bingo." Sam said, sarcastically. "I'm coming down and join the family again as soon as those men leave this house."

"Kyle is in love with you, dear." Mrs. Manson said. "And you can't run from this arranged marriage forever. He said you're dating that Danny boy." She looked very displeased. "It's obvious who the better match is."

"Why are you doing this, mom?" Sam asked, almost breaking down in front of her mother. "You know I don't want this. This is my life you're messing with."

"Dear, I wasn't pleased when I married your father either, but today I know it was for the best. One day you'll look back and thank us for doing this. We're thinking of the best for you."

"Mom…" Sam closed her eyes, taking a deep breathe and keeping her tears from falling. "I'm going to tell you this just once: I'd rather die than to get married."

"You have two years to think about that." Her mother said. "I'm not going to force you, but I will do everything I can to convince you of the right choice." Mrs. Manson said, walking out of the room and slamming the door shut.

Sam dropped on her bed, feeling exhausted and ready to cry like a little girl for hours. She buried her face on her pillow when she heard her door creaking open and someone tiptoeing into the room. She froze when she realized she forgot to lock the door.

She was going to stand up, when she felt someone breathing down her neck. Her hair was standing up in shock. She thought of the worse that moment. She tried to move around, tried to roll on her back, but someone was trapping her against the bed with their body.

"Sam..." Kyle whispered on her ear, kissing her neck gently. "You don't have to play the rebel with me." He said. "I can see right through your heart."

"If you don't back away right now, I'll scream." She threatened.

"Too bad your walls are soundproof." He grinned, but let her go anyway.

"How do you know that?" She rolled away from the bed as if it was on fire.

"Your mom was talking about how annoying your taste in rock music is." He half laughed.

"_But I'm a creep  
I'm a weirdo  
What the hell am I doing here?  
I don't belong here"_

The song 'Creep' played in the background. Sam noticed that she couldn't reach the door, because Kyle was standing in the way. She was trapped.

"_She's running out again  
She's running out  
She run, run, run run  
Run"_

"What are you going to do with me?" She asked, looking for anything that she could hit him with, cursing herself for taking out her boots.

"Nothing." He said simply. "I just wanted to talk. Why are you so scared of me?" He looked hurt, as if she had misunderstood him for a low life vermin.

"I'm not used having man lying on top of me on my bed." She said, sarcastically.

"I couldn't resist." He smiled. "You looked so cute."

"Stop it, please." She said, almost desperately. "Don't insist."

"I'm not insisting. I'm just here to ask for a deadline." When Sam looked puzzled at him without replying he continued. "Give me a month to win you over."

"_Whatever makes you happy  
Whatever you want  
You're so fucking special  
I wish I was special" _

Sam looked at the boy standing in front of her, looking completely harmless. She put down her guard, thinking that maybe talking wasn't a bad idea.

"I just wanted to explain that this marriage thing that our parents settled is a religious tradition in our family." Kyle explained. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to disappoint them."

"I don't care." Sam shouted. "I don't want it, I won't do it. You can be the nicest guy on earth, Kyle, but I do not wish to get married."

"If I was Danny Fenton, would you say the same thing?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, I would." She tilted up her chin, defiantly. "Now, please, get out of my room." She pointed the door at him, but instead of living he took the opportunity to crush his lips on hers.

He pulled away quickly, looking down at her as if he had down something horrible (well, he had.) She looked at him completely stunned for about five seconds.

"GET OUT!" She screamed, not being able to control her tears. Her first real kiss. He had just taken her first kiss.

"I didn't mean to-"

"Get out!" She repeated, biting her lip so hard it bled.

Kyle looked frightened. He apologized and left her room. Sam quickly locked the door and fell on her knees; her legs were shaking so hard she didn't have the strength to hold her weight up.

She searched for her cell phone, dying to hear Danny's voice and tell him everything that had happened, but when she reached it and dialed his number she realized how unfair it was to put him in the middle of her family problems.

She threw the cell phone back in the bed.

"_But I'm a creep  
I'm a weirdo  
What the hell am I doing here?  
I don't belong here"_

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Danny hadn't seen Sam the whole day. They had just two classes together on Friday, but she always showed up so they could chat between classes. She hadn't even showed up during lunch.

He pocketed some cookies when lunch was over and headed for the classroom ten minutes before the class started and was glad to see his favorite girl sitting there, even though she didn't look very happy to see him.

"I thought you didn't come." He grinned at her, placing the cookies in front of her. "I was going to call you and ask if you're sick." He noticed she was hiding her face and immediately got worried. "Sam, look at me." He ordered.

To anybody who knew Sam enough it was obvious that she was not the kind of person who would be ordered around, but those who knew how close she and Danny was wouldn't be surprised to see that she obeyed him and lifted her face to let him see her.

"What happened to your mouth?" He asked, holding her chin to look closely at the bruised lips. He saw a cut on her lower lip and his eyes flashed green in fury.

"I was clumsy yesterday, don't worry." She smiled at him, wearing a mask of boredom that she confused him so well.

"He touched you." He said, grabbing her hands and squeezing them gently, to show her he was there for her. "He's dead."

"He kissed me." She finally said. "But you won't get in the middle of this." She declared, seeing that he was in the process of going ghost to murder the pompous jerk.

"I won't? Yeah, right. Watch me!"

"You sit down!" She yelled dangerously, making the ghost turn human again and sitting down obediently like a trained dog.

"He hurt you." He said, still looking ready to murder.

"He kissed me and I bit my lip after that, he wasn't rough with me." She explained, patiently. Danny shut up and heard her. "He's going to stay for a month. We established a deadline." She explained. "He has a month to win me over, if he doesn't he's never coming back."

"And you're going to watch your back a whole month? Sam, that jerk is inside your house! He broke into your room and forced you to kiss him! Who knows what might happen next!" He stood up, pacing around the classroom, furiously.

"He's not a jerk." She said. "He was very polite, actually, but I admit I don't know him well enough to trust him… I didn't want to trouble you, but…" She trailed off, making Danny look at her expectantly. "Would you pretend to be my boyfriend until it's over?" She asked, her eyes pleading him. "I swear I'll help you get Valerie after this."

"Fine." Danny sighed, relieved. "It's a whole month… but it's better than see another bruise on you."

"We can break up at the ball so that you can dance with Valerie." Sam suggested, making Danny chuckle.

"Is he going to be around school?" He asked.

"I'm afraid so. I saw him leaving the principal's office this morning." She said, sadly. "We'll have to fool the whole school if we want to make him believe us."

"It won't be that hard." Danny grinned. "We are best friends after all. We're comfortable around each other to put up a show."

"Thank you so much." She said, hugging him. Danny buried his nose in her hair, smelling her sweet perfume. They were into their own world when the bell rang and the students started entering the classroom.

They only noticed they had an audience when the teacher cleared his throat loudly near them, making them break the hug blushing madly and sit back to the class to start.

**That's it, one more chapter done. Special thanks to my friend Rae for proof reading it to me. Next chapter will be out soon with more 'action' if you know what I mean. See ya.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter three**

"I asked you to be my boyfriend not my bodyguard, and what the hell is Tucker doing standing there?" Sam asked trying to keep Danny from walking into the girl's bathroom with her. Tucker was standing on the door with a whistle and binoculars.

"I'm just going to check if he's in there and tell I'll stand in the door with Tucker and wait for you." Danny said.

"Danny, he's not a ghost. He can't walk through walls!" Sam tapped her foot impatiently, as he quickly looked around the bathroom. "Is it safe already?"

"Yeah, I'll wait outside." He grinned at her, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, making her roll her eyes and close the door on his nose.

Five minutes later Sam opened the door and found Danny waiting for her with a gentle smile. Her heart melted immediately and she grabbed the hand he offered her.

Poor Tucker was feeling a bit left out, even though he knew everything about the situation. Danny was happy, ready to have the best time of his life. And Sam was still feeling guilty for putting Danny into the mess, the only thing she let him do was to hold her hand in public, which wasn't very convincing to Paulina, Dash and, of course Kyle.

"Relax." Danny kissed their joined hands. He let go of her hand to sneak his arm around her waist, smiling radiantly down at her. They walked through the students that had their mouths hanging open as they passed.

To Danny's delight, they crossed Kyle who was talking with a few teachers in the corridor. The boy stopped mid sentence when he saw Danny and Sam together. Kyle quickly excused himself and walked straight to the pair.

"Sam, can I have a word with you in private?" He asked.

"No, you can't." Sam answered.

"But I have to!" Kyle insisted, only to be cut off by Danny.

"You heard the lady." Danny grinned at him, putting a hand on Sam's shoulder because she was advancing towards Kyle ready to strangle him. "She doesn't want to talk to you."

"Sam, we have a deal." He said, trying to grab her hand.

Kyle's small attempt to touch Sam was enough to make Danny snap. He stepped forward, putting Sam behind him and his eyes flashed green for a second.

"You touch her and you die." He shoved his finger under Kyle's nose.

A few girls that passed by sighed in awe, clasping their hands together and wishing they were in Sam's place. It was just too romantic to see boys fighting over a girl.

"This is ridiculous." Kyle finally said, turning around and leaving the couple alone.

Sam sighed, she was relieved that Kyle had left and annoyed because Danny was overreacting, she rested her forehead against Danny's back, putting her arms around him to give him a hug. Tucker hadn't said a word to it all, but he couldn't help a knowing grin when he realized that Danny and Sam acted more like a couple than it was necessary.

Valerie watched the whole scene, surprised and disappointed to see that Danny had finally chosen between the girls. She had to admit she had it coming from the first time she studied Danny and Sam's interaction. They always had their hands all over each other, sharing casual hugs and kisses whenever was (and wasn't) necessary. She smiled and decided that she should go for her plan B. Her eyes settled on the Techno Geek who was grinning goofily at the scene.

"So, what about we rush to the Nasty Burger?" Danny finally said, turning to his best friends.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The trio sat down in the Nasty Burger of the Amity Park Mall waiting for their orders. Danny absently played with Sam's fingers as she observed how interesting his hair looked that day. Tucker was amused that Danny and Sam were so comfortable with the situation. They barely let their guard down in public.

There were a few students at the mall so it was logical that Danny and Sam should continue to pretend, but it was starting to get on his nerves.

"What are you going to do?" Tucker asked.

"What are you talking about?" Sam replied, confused.

"In two hours it's going to be our curfew; it leaves Sam alone in her house with the jerk until school tomorrow." Tucker pointed out, seeing both his friends shrug.

"Danny, could you go to my house with me?" Sam asked.

"Sure, but what for?"

"We're going inside, like a couple and we spend a few minutes in my room. After that you can go away and I'll make sure my door is locked." She explained.

"Do you think that will work?" He asked, nervously. He could picture how 'happy' her father would be to see him sneaking into his daughter's room.

"At least it will keep my parents busy, wondering what is going on. If we make them believe in this, then maybe they can talk to Kyle and his father long enough for me to sneak out and meet you outside. I'm not going to sleep in that house for a month." She said.

"Fine and where are you going to sleep exactly?" Danny asked.

"Danny's house? With him? Same bed?" Tucker joked, making both Sam and Danny blush brightly at the comment.

"No… I was thinking of our tree house." She smiled, bringing old memories back.

"That thing must be rotten." Danny said, remembering the old tree house they had built in Danny's backyard with Jack's help. It was big enough to accommodate two adults in there.

"Well, I was planning on checking it out, if it's not a good idea I can simply rent a hotel room." Sam explained. "I have my own credit card now."

"Fine, let's check out the old tree house." Danny said, standing up.

Thirty minutes later they all agreed that the best thing they could do was to rent a hotel room. Danny ran into his house to grab some snacks and when he returned he brought a note with him, looking confused.

"My parents are out of town for two weeks." He said. "They're visiting Jazz in the college. Looks like she broke her foot."

"Well, problems solved." Tucker laughed. "You two have the house to yourselves."

"Tucker, I swear your mind is always in the gutter." Sam groaned.

"Well, but he's right." Danny smiled at her. "You can stay here for the night and I'll take you home in the mornings before your parents go wake you up."

"I really owe you." Sam sighed.

"Don't worry about it." He grinned, kissing her cheek.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"It's not that hard, Danny, there's no need to be nervous." Sam said, patting his back as they got ready to walk into Sam's house and show everyone how 'passionate' they were. "You just have to kiss me on the cheek and put a hand around my waist, my parents won't freak out at you." She explained.

Danny took a deep breath and held her from behind, walking up into the house. He laughed softly on her ear, hearing her do the same. He felt her shivering under his light touch. He closed the door loudly behind him.

Mrs. Manson and Kyle showed up from the living room to greet Sam, but were very surprised to see that she had company. She said a small hi to them and led Danny up the staircase and into her room, giggling all the way up.

Danny was going to close the door when Sam stopped him silently, letting it slightly open. She grinned and made him sit on her bed. She sat halfway on his lap and went completely silent; both tried to hear if there was someone coming closer to the room.

Indeed, two minutes later the noise of Mrs. Manson's high heels echoed through the hall.

"Samantha you're not fooling anyone with that little game of yours!" She shouted.

Danny saw the door opening and panicked.

Mrs. Manson walked into the room to see her daughter being kissed full in the mouth by the boy she hated so much while sitting shamelessly on his lap.

"I will not tolerate this attitude, Samantha!" She shrieked. "You have a fiancée!"

Sam broke the kiss, standing up to face her mother.

"I do not; _you_ want me to have a fiancée. But I'm with Danny now. You can't force me!"

"Fine." The woman finally gave up. "But I don't want to see you together inside this house." She stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut.

Danny was ready to hear Sam shouting at him angrily for kissing her, but instead he was very surprised when she gave him a satisfied smile.

"I think they believe us now."

"Yeah… I think they do."

"We're experts at fake-out-make-outs." She laughed, throwing herself into his arms, making him fall back on her pillow. "What would I do without you?" She kissed his cheek.

"You'd probably be getting married in a couple of years." He answered, holding her firmly against him. "Now you better go get changed, lock the door and wait for a ghostly visit in five minutes."

She rolled off him and nodded, opening the door to him and making sure it was locked as soon as he stepped out. She opened her drawer and quickly picked a satin nightgown that she thought pretty decent and got changed.

Exactly five minutes later she felt the temperature drop and looked around, seeing Danny Phantom materializing in front of her with a grin.

"Your mother was apologizing to Kyle when I walked out." He said. "His father seemed very angry." Sam smiled and held out her arms, like a baby that want to be picked up. Danny half laughed and held her close. "We better go to sleep." And then turned intangible, flying them to his house.

Sam was very surprised to see that Danny had arranged a spare bed in his room, right beside his. They grinned at each other and went to their beds, turning off the lights. Unfortunately, they weren't sleepy at all. Fifteen minutes of tossing and turning, Danny completely gave up.

"Sam? Are you awake?" he whispered at her.

"Sort of." She giggled. "This pillow smells so good it's making me sleepy."

"I just wanted to ask you how I was in my first day as a pretend boyfriend."

"You're wonderful." She smiled, prompting her elbow on the bed and resting her head on her hand. "You were a bit paranoid in that bathroom, though. I give you eight out of ten."

"Less paranoia tomorrow, then." He grinned.

"You just have to remember that you're supposed to be my boyfriend, not my bodyguard. As sweet as it may be, protecting me all the time will seem suspicious."

"I get it. But aside that, did I do the rest right? Did I hold your hand right? Did I hug you right?"

"You kept contact and that's really important. If I didn't know your background I'd say you had a girlfriend." She smirked.

"Well, I do have a girl friend that I practice with." He said.

"She's a very lucky girl." Sam said, hitting the pillow again and yawning. "Now, please let's go to sleep."

"Okay. Goodnight, Sammy."

"Good night, Danny."

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"So, did you sweethearts sleep well? Wait, let me remake the question: did you sleep at all?" Tucker teased, seeing his best friends arriving at school together.

"Very funny, Tucker." Danny said, faking boredom. He and Sam hadn't touched hands yet, because nobody was around. It was a relief that for a few minutes they could act as best friends again.

"So, Sam, have you researched arguments for the debate in two days? I doubt you even thought about it." Tucker said, changing the subject before Danny fired his Ghost Ray at him.

"Oh, yeah, I did the best research of my life. I read all Carl Sagan's books and also read Agrippa's Five Ways of Skepticism. They're all college texts and books." She said proudly. "Paulina doesn't stand a chance."

"One day I'll understand everything you say." Danny replied, completely confused.

"You'll understand on the debate." Sam smiled at him, grabbing his had as they walked nearer the school.

"What about Literature paper? It's due today."

"I wrote a poem." She said, proudly.

"Sam!" They heard a girl shouting from school and they looked ahead to see Valerie waving her hands. Danny sighed at the sight and Sam elbowed him on the ribs, remembering him that he was supposed to pretend.

"Valerie?" Sam called back, confused. Valerie never ran to see her; they barely talked to each other. "What is it?"

"I'm not sure you heard about this, but I think I should warn you anyway," Valerie said, handing Sam a magazine with a photo of Sam and Kyle on the cover. "Someone called the press."

"What!" Sam squeaked like a little mouse, holding the magazine in her hands. "How the hell they got that picture?"

"How should I know?" Valerie raised her eyebrows. "There are a dozen reporters waiting for you at school. And by the way," She got closer to whisper in Sam's ear. "You and Danny are pretty convincing for a couple in their tenth year of marriage. You better work harder if you want to fool the journalists."

Valerie waved at Danny and Tucker and returned to school.

"What was that about?" Danny asked, confused.

"She just told me there are journalists in school waiting for me." She sighed, showing them the magazine. "As much as I'd like to blame Kyle for this, telling the press is something only my parents would do."

"Wait!" Danny said, looking at the article. "They're writing it as a big love story, like a contest, it says Miles had a month to win you over. It sounds like a reality show."

"Great." Sam said, sarcastically. "I was in the mood for kicking asses today, anyway." Then she turned to Danny, putting her hands on her hips. "You act like a boyfriend, don't stare at other girls, no Valerie, no Paulina. Tucker, you don't say a word to the journalists about Danny and I."

"I could just fly us inside without anyone seeing us." Danny grinned.

"As masochist as it sounds, I think I'd rather face them now and get it over with." She sighed. "Can you stand by me?"

"Of course."

And the three friends marched to the front of the school, immediately being seeing by their friends, journalists, photographers and a bunch of students that were trying to get the opportunity to stand out.

"It's her!" Someone shouted in the crowd and people surround her and Danny like ants coming out of the earth, walking up their bodies, suffocating them with vicious bites.

"Why have you hidden your relationship with Kyle Miles?" A journalist asked, sticking the microphone under her nose.

"Are you really dating Danny Fenton?"

"Do you love Mr. Miles?"

"Why did you give him a month to win you over?"

"Is it true your wedding dress is being designed by Valentino?"

"Have you kissed?"

"Why are you wearing black?"

Sam tried to walk through them without answering any questions, but she was blinded by the flashes of the cameras and there were people stepping on her toes, making barely walk straight, it didn't help the fact that she was very small. Apparently she wasn't going to walk out of that one without muttering a single word to satisfy them.

Danny held her hand firmly to show her he was there. She also felt Tucker searching for her other hand. Really, those two were like private bodyguards. She half smiled.

"I'm late for class." She said. "Excuse me." And with that, the journalists stepped out of the way, making the school entrance come into view. Sam felt Danny and Tucker pulling quickly into the school, where the journalists wouldn't enter unless they had a proper authorization.

"If I go through that again I'm so going to be social phobic." Sam stated, breathing deeply all the air that was cut from her by the crowd.

"Blame your fiancée for it." Danny growled; the word fiancée was like venom in his lips.

"I blame my parents, not him." Sam said. "When its time to leave, I'll take the offer and go invisible with my favorite halfa." She smirked, making Tucker grin at them. He was going to find someone to bet over his two best friends.

"Sam!" Kyle called her from other side of the corridor.

Sam rolled her eyes, not looking away from Danny and Tucker.

"What is it now?"

"It is about yesterday." He said accusingly; "Your mother was very shocked. My father almost had a stroke."

"It's not your business." She walked past him, she wanted to be alone, no one next to her to see her fury, but before she could go away she felt Kyle grabbing her wrist and turning her around to face him. She couldn't believe the nerve that boy had to do it in front of Danny. "Hey!" She protested, but he didn't let go of her, instead he pressed closer.

"Let go of her!" Danny yelled, yanking Kyle from Sam with a strength that seemed almost unnatural for a human boy. He had his powers go off a bit and almost ruined his cover. He would completely lose it if that rich jerk touched Sam again.

Kyle lost his equilibrium for a second and had to hold himself up in the wall. He was pulled backwards so abruptly that he hadn't noticed Danny had got in between him and Sam.

"You have been warned!" Danny said dangerously.

Kyle never got himself in fights so he chose to walk away before Danny jumped on him. He couldn't risk his reputation when there were so many journalists around, besides he wasn't violent, he found his ways through conversation. He raised his hands showing that he didn't want to fight and, without a word, turned around and walked away, getting lost in the middle of the students that had crowd around them, hoping for a fight.

Danny was seeing red. He wanted to punch that pretty face to hell and back, but Kyle had stepped away. Either he had walked away from the fight out of lack of confidence, either he was a coward or didn't support any kind of fighting, Danny didn't care, he wanted to give him at least a bloody nose. Danny knew he couldn't attack a man who refused to fight back so the whole situation just left his murderous wishes extremely unfulfilled.

Danny turned around to see if Sam was alright, but he didn't see her. She wasn't anywhere near. He sighed in frustration when he heard the bell ringing. Knowing Sam as well as he did, he realized she probably was in class already or in the bathroom kicking the walls.

"Hey, man, calm down." Tucker put a helping hand on his shoulder. "Sam is fine, he didn't hurt her."

"How can you tell me calm down?" Danny asked, frustrated, walking to the classroom. "Next time I see him he's dead meat!"

"You can't think like that, Danny, it's not a school fight." Tucker explained. "He's powerful, he has the media behind him and if you touch him, even a tiny punch, he can sue you."

"I will have to control my temper…" Danny sighed. "I already pity the next ghost that crosses my way."

Tucker laughed sympathetic and opened the door to the classroom, walking inside with a bunch of teachers. They saw Sam sitting on her usual desk; her eyes were slightly red, meaning that she had been crying. That sight broke Danny's heart completely. She had never broken down in public and even though there were no traces of tears on her face, it was undeniable that she had been crying.

He sat by her side and gave her a small smile. She smiled back, but didn't hold the smile for long. She looked at the teacher who had started talking in front of the class. He had asked the students to read their essays out loud and comment.

Sam put her hand up and the teacher allowed her to talk.

"May I be the first? I'm not feeling very well and I'd like to be excused." She said completely ignoring the look Danny was giving her.

"Of course, dear."

Sam stood up, grabbed her notebook and turned it to the right page. All students were looking at her; some were waiting for a love letter to her rich cousin, others were expecting her to confess her undying love for her best friend, but in the end what she read had nothing to do with what anybody expected.

"And She Was Gone" She read the title.

"_She chose to walk alone__  
__Though others wondered why__  
__Refused to look before her,__  
__Kept eyes cast upwards,__  
__Towards the sky. _

_She didn"t have companions__  
__No need for earthly things.__  
__Only wanted freedom,__  
__From what she felt were__  
__Puppet strings. _

_She longed to be a bird.__  
__That she might fly away.__  
__She pitied every blade of grass__  
__For planted they would stay. _

_She longed to be a flame,__  
__That brightly danced alone.__  
__Felt jealous of the steam__  
__That made the air its only home. _

_Some say she wished too hard.__  
__Some say she wished too long.__  
__But we awoke one autumn day__  
__To find that she was gone. _

_The trees, they say stood witness.__  
__The sky refused to tell.__  
__But someone who had seen it said__  
__The story played out well. _

_She spread her arms out wide.__  
__Breathed in the break of dawn.__  
__She just let go of all she held...__  
__And then she was gone." _

"Very well, Miss Manson." The teacher said, writing down some notes on his paper. "You may go."

Sam thanked him and shoved her book inside her bag, running away from the classroom quickly. Danny tried to get her attention, but couldn't stop her. He asked to go to the bathroom, but the teacher didn't let him before he read his essay, which had two lines of idiotic rhymes about ghosts.

When Danny went looking for Sam, she wasn't anywhere to be found in school.

** This poetry belongs to the cartoon As Told by Ginger. As much as I would like to put my own poetries here, I doubt my English poetries are better than this one. **

**So, here's another chapter done. I hope you like it. I'm getting so many reviews that it is fantastic! I never got so many before! Thank you everyone!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Danny had a busy day in school. He had three essays to read, one book to finish and ten pages of homework that he hadn't finished because the day before he was busy pretending to be Sam's boyfriend. The worse part was that Kyle still came after her and she had gone missing until last period.

He put his hands on his pocket and wandered around the corridors, hoping that he could cross by his brokenhearted pretend girlfriend, but he wasn't lucky. His feet took him absently across the hallway through the nurse's office.

"Mr. Fenton?" He turned around to see the nurse peeking out of the door with a sweet look that could coax many students into going there and saying they were sick just to spend two minutes by her side. Yeah, the school nurse was a real beauty. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Of course." Danny said, his eyes widening. 'She knows my name!' his brain screamed in joy. 'Wait, you have to find Sam.' but before he could think of an excuse to go away from the office, the nurse interrupted him by commanding him to sit down on the other side of her desk.

"I wanted to talk to you about your girlfriend, Samantha Manson." She smiled. Danny paled immediately. Was Sam really feeling sick? Was she in there?

"Is she alright?" He asked, worried.

"Oh, she's fine, she came in complaining about cramps and I let her go." The nurse smiled, seeing how worried the poor boy was the instant she mentioned Sam's name. "I was informed that you two are going out now…" She said, becoming quite serious. She noticed Danny's blush and took that as a yes. "Usually I don't do things like this, it's not my place, but since she was actually complaining of cramps and I received a call early this morning from her distressed mother I decided that maybe we should talk about 'protection'."

"Protection?" Danny echoed, feeling his face burn. He was sure he had never been so red in his whole life. He only hoped the nurse wasn't going to talk about…

"You see, I'm sure your parents already talked to you about condoms, right?"

'Oh crap.' Danny shouted in his head. He dropped his gaze to the floor and decided to study the floor patterns until it was finished. What the hell had he done to deserve this? No one deserved to have a sex talk with the school nurse!

"I'll take that as a no." The nurse said, raising her eyebrows, looking very upset at the poor job Danny's parents had done raising him. She opened a drawer and gave him a pack with ten condoms inside. "It's very important you use it, young man." She warned. "I was suspicious the cramps Sam was complaining about had something to do with sex since her period was last week."

"How can you know it?" Danny blurted out the words, blushing madly. He knew he made the wrong choice of words because the nurse smiled knowingly at him and continued.

"Because she came here asking for tampons, silly. I really didn't think you two had done it because I heard only yesterday that you were together, but her mother's call really stressed me out."

"Why would her mother be calling you?" Danny asked, fearing a conspiracy.

"She informed me of your behavior last night and asked me to perform a pregnancy test on Sam, actually." The nurse said. Danny's blush wasn't out of embarrassment anymore, but out of anger. Mrs. Manson knew how to lead a conspiracy. She was investigating them! "I didn't have the heart to tell Sam that because she really looked in pain so I simply dismissed her, but Danny, I must know if you two didn't use protection, you know how serious it is."

"We…" Danny's embarrassment had come back completely. How the hell could he explain to the nurse that they were faking it? He suddenly realized that he couldn't tell her that. Mrs. Manson was talking to her! The best thing he could do was to try to sound convincing and avoid anymore conversations like this. "We were going to, but we didn't." He said redder than a tomato. "Someone… interrupted us."

"That must have been awkward." She smiled sympathetic. "But I hope you were going to use protection?" She asked.

"Well… we…" He didn't know what to say, the words simply wouldn't come out.

"I know, you don't have to explain." The nurse said. "But please take these with you and in case you're embarrassed to go buy more, drop in my office and I'll give you another package, is it okay with you?"

Danny only nodded, shoving the package inside his bag quickly, as if it burned his skin with the slight touch.

"And be a gentleman to that girl, you hear me." The nurse joked, opening the door for him. "She's the only girl I've ever met who cares about frogs."

Danny would have laughed if he wasn't so embarrassed. He nodded and ran away from the office as quick as he could only stop when he was fifty feet away from school.

He heard his cell phone ringing and quickly picked it up. It was Sam.

"Sam where are you?" He asked, not giving her a chance to even say 'hello'.

"I ran to your house, I'm sorry." She said. "Nobody saw me coming here."

"Hang in there, I'm coming." He said. He looked around and saw a bunch of reporters running towards him. With so many people around he couldn't go ghost. He chose to run home instead, with lucky, get those reporters lost along the way.

It took him fifteen minutes running to finally arrive to his home (he had to take an alternative way so that no one would follow him). He closed the door behind him and locked it with his spare pair of keys. He ran up the staircase and entered his room to find Sam laying down his bed, looking like she was exhausted.

"Sam?" He called, wondering if she was asleep.

"Finally," She said, not moving a muscle. Her eyes were closed.

"Are you going to hide here until it's over?" He asked, sitting down by her side.

"Do you have a better idea?" She asked, tiredly. "The most innerving thing is that he hasn't done a single bad thing to me. He was nice all the time."

"I understand, but don't worry about him; I promise you I won't let him get ten feet close to you." Danny said. He saw a small line of flesh that was showing on Sam's stomach. Her shirt and her skirt didn't cover her bellybutton. He started drawing invisible patterns on her flesh, seeing that it tickled her, especially when he touched her with the tip of his fingers, barely touching her skin.

"Stop that." She laughed, trying to squirm away. "And I'm worried about you, too."

"Me?" He asked, surprised.

"I really don't want to see you getting in a fight. Kyle is not the fighting type." She said, finally opening her eyes.

"I don't want to fight, either, but he is getting on my nerves." Danny said, looking upset, remembering that morning. "He touched you quite roughly and your lips are still bruised." He said, leaning forward to take a better look at her healing lips.

"I bit my lip, he didn't do it." Sam said, moving away from his hand.

"Let's hang out like he doesn't exist." Danny grinned, trying his best to cheer her up.

"Like it would work." She rolled her eyes, finally sitting up.

"No, I mean it, really." Danny said. "Let's go out on dates, let's do romantic stuff and let everyone see us!"

"I think it's better if we stay home." Sam said. "Think of it as quarantine." She said when Danny shrugged. "Really, I mean it, Danny, Valerie figured out we're faking our relationship." She saw Danny's eyes lit up with hope and fought the urge to roll her eyes again. "She said we act like a married couple."

"What?" Danny asked, not understanding. "It's supposed to be a good thing then, why hide it?"

"You are not a very observant person are you?" Sam asked, already knowing the answer. "When couples get together they share a burning passion, you know." She tried to explain. "They don't act like they're used to each other, it's more like they can't get enough of each other."

"Yeah, I know…" Danny said. "It's like when Dash and Paulina got together, they would steal kisses even in class."

"That's why I say we should stay home." She concluded.

"And I say we should go out and be all over each other." Danny said and blushed the moment the words left his mouth.

"Why do you say that?" Sam eyed him suspiciously. "You understand I'm not talking about simple pecks right?"

"I know." Danny chuckled, finding her face hilarious at that moment. "But I got some news… yesterday your mother was so shocked with 'a simple peck' that she called the school nurse to give us a 'sex talk'."

"You're kidding!" Sam said, her eyes looked ready to pop out of her face. "But I went there today to be dismissed and…"

"I know and she didn't say anything because she took pity on you." Danny explained, trying to not laugh. "But she called me there when I was passing and… well… it WAS awkward." He blushed.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Danny…" Sam apologized, touching his arm as if it would comfort him somehow.

"Well, I didn't deny any of what she implied, though." He blushed, looking away when he saw Sam's blushing, too. "Now she thinks we're… well… you know."

"And she's going to tell my mother." Sam looked horrified. "Oh my… I'm going to get grounded."

"Do you think it would get Kyle off your back?" He asked.

"Why would it?" Sam asked, confused.

"You know… if it's an arranged marriage then if you're not… not… if your first time is not with him, I guess, maybe he'll lose the interest?" Danny was regretting getting into the subject when he saw Sam's mouth hanging open while she stared at him incredulously.

"… a male mind is really a paradox." She commented, as if she was not talking to him. "It's complex to perform a single thought, but really simple to understand."

"What are you blabbing about?" He asked, slightly offended, but not sure.

"It's all about egos. You boys are so shallow!" She said, standing up with a smile, teasing him. Danny pouted. "If I hurt your ego you make a storm out of a cup of water." Danny still was waiting for an explanation. "I mean you're a genius, a naïve one, but still a genius."

"Great." He smiled. "Now explain to me what it means."

"It means we're going to put some spice in our relationship." She said, smiling and blushing in embarrassment at the same time. "If Mr. Miles thinks we're sleeping together, then he might think I'm not suitable to be his son's wife."

"You mean, we're going to kiss in public?" Danny asked, blushing, too. "And by kiss I mean not just a peck…"

"Yes… unless you don't want it, of course." Sam said, quickly.

"Well… it's not like it's going to ruin our lives, I mean… we are comfortable with each other… right?" Danny was so nervous that he stood up, walking away from the bed so that he wouldn't feel the warmth that was emanating from her body.

"I really don't want you to feel pressured." Sam said, seeing that he had started pacing around the room. "I can hide here until it's over like I had planned."

"I'm not feeling pressured." Danny said. "I don't mind kissing you." He blushed.

"Okay…" Sam said, avoiding his eyes and trying not to show him her own blush. They were sharing an uncomfortable silence.

"Would you like to take a walk in the park?" He offered. "We could… act as a couple there."

"Fine." She smiled, standing up. "Do you think someone will see us?"

"Let's hope the journalists take a picture." He grinned, offering her a hand that she gladly accepted.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Danny and Sam were currently sitting under a tree in the park, watching the lake move lazily with the soft breeze. Sam let Danny play absently with her hand (that seemed to be his favorite toy) enjoying the comfortable and peaceful moment they were sharing.

Sam heard a strange noise coming from the bushes near them and looked around, staring at it suspiciously. The sun reflected on a round glass. She smiled nervously and poked Danny on the ribs.

"Hey!" He protested, looking down at her ready to start a tickling fight.

"We have company." She said, "In the bushes, I saw a camera."

Danny didn't have to look to believe her. He sighed nervously, never breaking eye contact. He licked his lips and Sam's heart started beating wildly inside her chest, anticipating what was about to happen.

He stared at her lips feeling the urge to make contact with them, like a fruit that he was going to taste for the very first time. He swallowed the lump in his throat and lifted his hand to frame her face gently. He noticed that she was completely frozen in place; that she wasn't going to move towards him, making it much more difficult to him. He had to take the first step.

He breathed in determination. He looked from her lips to her eyes and found her looking desperately to his eyes and his lips, not deciding which she preferred most. He felt his knees getting weaker and was very grateful that he was sitting down.

"Sam…" He whispered closely, for no reason at all other than the pleasure of saying her name. His breath tingled her lips and she parted them. Her eyes were half closed, expectantly. He finally closed the small distance between them and pressed his lips to hers, baking away half a second later to see her opening her eyes in disappointment.

He couldn't take it anymore, he didn't give her a chance to talk, he leaned forward once more and this time he pressed his lips harder. Her lips were soft. He had never pressed hard enough to actually notice it.

She hesitantly lifted her hands to his chest; they rested there for a minute before she continued all the way up to circle her arms around his neck. He hadn't moved his lips yet, instead, he moved his hands; one was on cupping her face while the other pulled her closer while sneaking around her waist.

His lips finally started moving against hers, he heard her moaning. He felt her lips part slightly and he took the opportunity to slip his tongue between her lips, tasting her cherry lip gloss. He plunged again, this time making her open her lips even more so that he could meet her tongue with his. It was beyond everything he had ever imagined.

If he had known that Sam would taste so heavenly, he would have found an opportunity to kiss her before. Wait! Was he actually enjoying this? Was he enjoying kissing his best friend? It wasn't supposed to be like that!

When he realized what he was doing he tried to break away from her, but she reached forward to meet his lips again. Her leg was moving against his bringing up a fire that Danny had never experienced before. To hell with the best friend thing. She wanted him to kiss her so he was going kiss her like there was no tomorrow;

His mouth passionately kissed hers, but that wasn't enough, he left her bruised lips and started kissing her jaw line, down her neck and up to her ear, capturing it with his teeth.

"Danny!" She moaned in desperation, her hands were back on his chest and she gently pulled him away. He let go of her and backed away, staring at her flushed face. Both were breathing so heavily that it impossible to talk for a few minutes. She didn't speak to not ruin their pretend game, but Danny could read her thoughts clearly in her eyes 'that was one hell of a fake kiss.'

Instead of speaking, she smiled reassuringly at him and buried her face on his neck, listening to his heart calmingthe racing beat. She gave him a hug; her fingers were playing with his hair on the back of his neck.

"I think they got more photos than they needed." Danny finally said, convinced that what they had shared was completely okay. He glanced at the bush and saw it empty. "He's gone already."

"I can't wait to see tomorrow's paper." She laughed, backing away just enough to look at him in the eyes. "You know, I have been thinking…" She said, becoming serious again and Danny almost panicked, fearing she was going to say that they didn't have to fake it anymore, that it was enough. "… a journalist, paparazzi or whatever that person in the bush was, what if they're not here to spy us for a paper?" Danny stared at her in confusion. "It may sound paranoid, but… what if my family or Kyle's family is paying a private investigator to follow us?"

"I can't see a difference." Danny said, sincerely. "We'll have to keep with the pretend for a month anyway."

"It's just that…" Her voice broke and the tears started once again pulling out of her eyes. "I feel betrayed." She said, trying to keep her voice steady. "I thought I could count on them, after all they're my parents, but they just don't understand. They're blind to my unconventional wishes."

"Parents are supposed to make your life harder." Danny tried to joke, but he wasn't successful.

"You know what I mean." She said, impatiently. "Parents are supposed to complicate your life if you're choosing the wrong path, but tell me Danny, what is wrong in choosing a career over a marriage?"

"I think they are only overreacting because Miles is filthy rich, when it all pass, they will understand and support your decisions." Danny said, helping her up. The sky was getting dark, which meant it was time to go home, separately first, only to join again afterwards. "You must agree that it is an opportunity of a lifetime, that man can become president one day (I really hope I'm wrong), his power is what blinds your parents now. You just have to be careful for a while."

Sam smiled, holding his hand in hers while walking out of the park towards her house. She didn't have to answer for Danny to understand he had comforted her enough. She was already acting like everything was okay.

They didn't say a word until they reached her house. She climbed up the stairs and brought him with her, stopping right in front of the door. She leaned forward on the tip of her toes to reach his height and kissed him sweetly on the lips.

The door opened abruptly, surprising the couple. They broke away to see a fuming Mr. Manson.

"Samantha, we have to talk." He said.

Sam looked at Danny, scared.

"Can I say goodbye, at least?" She asked her father.

"One minute." He said, closing the door again.

"Sam, stay calm, they're not going to hurt you; they're your parents." Danny said, seeing that she was about to panic.

"Oh my, he's so mad, Danny." She said.

"Go inside, I'll be here if you need me." He said, "I'm going invisible and I'll stand right here, if you need anything you just have to call me, okay?"

"Okay." She nodded, biting her lip nervously. "And thanks for today."

"Hey, aren't you coming over?" He asked, confusedly, because she was sounding like she wasn't going to see him again that day.

"I just felt like saying it now." She said, then freed her hand that still was in his and entered the house, closing the door slowly, as if afraid to break their eye contact.

Danny sighed and waited.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Samantha, sit down." Mr. Manson said, pointing at a chair in the middle of the living room. He was alone in there and there wasn't a sound in the house indicating that somebody else was there.

Sam obeyed him and sat down.

"Your mother talked to the school nurse today." He said. Sam felt her heart skip a beat. "She said you weren't feeling very well and that you were dismissed."

"That's true." Sam said. "I also took the opportunity to hide from all those journalists that came out of nowhere."

"Anyway," Her father continued. "She said you and Danny were getting intimate." He didn't need to say anything else; Sam understood immediately what he meant. She nodded and he continued. "You know that underage sex is forbidden by law." It wasn't a question. She nodded again. "You realize you're putting us in a very delicate situation." He said, once again not questioning her.

Sam looked up to meet her father in the eyes. He looked hurt. That look broke her heart completely. It shattered in a million pieces.

"You're my only daughter." He said. "I hoped I had raised you right. First you refuse to dress properly, then you refuse to go to the parties, you don't talk to us anymore, you never open up. The perfect opportunity for a brilliant future shows up and you won't take it." He said. "I understand you never saw him before and I am almost grateful you actually gave him a month to prove himself, but he can't do it if you keep refusing him."

"Dad, I don't want Kyle." She explained. "I am already in love with someone else."

"You said to me you don't believe in love." Her father stared at her, seeing right through her. "Why would you change your mind in such a convenient time?"

"Fine." She gave up trying to fool him. "I'm trying to stay away from him."

"By going with that Fenton boy?" Mr. Manson returned to the point he had almost missed.

"Dad, give Danny a chance…" Sam begged, asking herself why she was doing that in the first place. It was supposed to be just pretend; she didn't have to ask such awkward things.

"I'll give Danny a change if you give Kyle a chance." Mr. Manson finally came up with what he thought was a fair play.

"But that's not fair!" She had tears in her eyes now.

"It's not fair how you're treating him! John is my best friend how do you think it will affect our friendship? We were dreaming about the moment you and Kyle would marry even before you were born. John still thinks you're suitable for his daughter-in-law, even if you're not loyal to the wedding's nuptials tradition" He explained, tiredly. "I'm just asking you to go out with Kyle and know him better."

Well… maybe that she could do.

**Did I take too long to update? I'm so sorry! I had to defend the project of my film on the stage in front of the whole college (12 teachers were there taking notes!). I have stage-fright! And well, they approved my film! There were 16 scripts and only 4 were approved, which means next months I'll be really busy shotting my movie and drawing it (it's an animation). **

**Anyway, Now I'm better (uncountable sleepless nights) and here is the next chapter. I hope I made it up for the delay. **

**See ya and don't forget to review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Sam was sitting on Danny's bed next morning very anxious about her situation. Danny had a hand on her knee and was looking at the ground as if it would give him an answer to all his problems.

The night before she and Danny had gone to his bedroom silently and both fell asleep without exchanging a word. When Sam woke up, she crawled her way to Danny's bed, waking him up to hold her. It was when she finally told him about the conversation the day before.

"Sam…" Danny sighed, removing the hand from her knee to caress her face, delicately. "I won't leave you alone with him." He said, "I'll go ghost and be by your side the whole time."

"Today he'll take me to dinner."

"You agreed already?" He asked, slightly surprised and hurt. He knew he had no right to feel hurt or jealous that she was going on a date, he didn't own her. She had never gone out in a date before; she had always hanged with him like there was nobody else in the world that would get her attention.

"I did, but he doesn't know what expects him tonight." She smiled devilishly. "I'll convince him to go to a cheap Italian restaurant and I'll eat the pasta in the most disgusting way ever!"

Danny's anger, jealously and everything he was feeling at that moment completely disappeared and he collapsed on the bed, laughing his head of.

Sam smiled at the scene before her. 'Mission accomplished.' She thought, seeing that had successfully set her best friend in a lighter mood.

"We better go to school." She said, standing up. At the moment she said that the telephone rang.

"Wait, I still have to fly you home, remember?" Danny said, picking up the phone "Hello?"

"Daniel Fenton I can't believe what you and Sam have been doing!" A very mad Maddie shouted on the phone.

"What are we doing, mom?" Danny asked, innocently, wondering if his parents had installed cameras around the house. If they had, they probably would be much more concerned about his half ghost side than the fact that he and Sam were sharing a room…

"Don't play dumb with me, young man, I read everything in today's magazine! You better give me a very good excuse to not go back home before we planned and ground you for a month!" Maddie yelled at the other side of the line. Even Sam could hear her.

"Magazine? What are you talking about?" Danny was really confused now, he wasn't just playing dumb.

"Yes, the Affluence Magazine came out today with a picture of you and Sam kissing in the park and it has an interview with your school nurse!"

"Oh crap…" Danny paled. Stupid journalists. How could they mess someone's lives so much? He looked up to Sam whose eyes were widened and blank. "Mom, it's not like that, Sam and I just kissed in the park, we're not together and the nurse just thought we were; that's all."

"Can I trust you?" His mother asked, still sounding suspicious.

"Mom, it's just me." Danny finally convinced her.

"Okay, but don't disappoint me, young man."

"I won't mom, you know me."

Sam watched the conversation go from awkward to extremely annoying. If she had remembered to bring her clothes with her she could go home by herself, but she wouldn't walk on the street in a nightgown. She sat on the bed again, waiting for Danny to finish the conversation.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

That night, Sam was in her room, getting dressed while her mother congratulated her from outside the door. Sam put on the darkest outfit she had. It was a black corset with a black skirt that looked like it had been completely ripped in the ends. She put her usual pair of combat boots and a collar that had a five inches pendant of a silver replica of a human skull.

She didn't put on her lilac make over; instead she applied a black lipstick and eyeliner, making her paler than normal, almost deadly pale.

"Danny?" She whispered, feeling the temperature drop.

"I'm here." He said, still invisible.

"How do I look?" She asked, grinning.

"Like you're part of Circus Gothika' show." He chuckled. "But cuter than freaky."

"Great." She replied, sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "I'm going now; don't leave me, please."

"You can stay calm." He said, then he was completely silent. If it wasn't for the temperature, she would have doubted he was still there.

She opened the door and saw her mother gasp in horror. She completely ignored her and climbed down the stairs, seeing Kyle already waiting for her there. He was holding a single red rose, which he offered her as soon as she came into view.

To Sam's frustration, Kyle seemed to find her very attractive in her dark clothes. He smiled widely. She ignored his outstretched hand and led the way to the car, which wasn't going to be her black Mercedes, but Kyle's red Ferrari.

"I made reservations at the best Japanese restaurant in town, I hope you like sushi." He smiled and Sam shrugged. She hated Japanese food.

"I don't like sushi… I'm vegetarian and I don't eat any kind of meat, fish, chicken or whatever that used to be an animal."

"Really?" He replied, disappointed. "Your parents didn't tell me about this."

"Maybe my parents are not home long enough to notice some things about me." Sam responded simply, with a blank face to make it impossible for him to read her.

"You're quite lonely, aren't you?" He smiled sympathetic at her, getting her completely by surprise. Sam looked at him as if he had just told her he knew her deepest secret. She relaxed and put on her indifference mask once more.

"Sometimes." She answered quietly.

"Your only friends are Danny and Tucker?" He asked, sounding gentle and reassuring.

"Yes, they're the only ones." She smiled to herself and before she realized she had relaxed and was almost forgetting who was by her side… almost.

There was silence once again. Kyle parked in front of an Italian restaurant he had spotted and on the door they saw a big poster of an Opera that had just premiered the previous week. Sam stopped to read the poster and Kyle grinned at her.

"Do you like Operas?" He asked, almost unbelievingly.

"I love them." She answered. "I never could get Danny or Tucker to go with me so I've watched them by myself all these years." She said, knowing that a certain halfa was feeling very guilty right now.

"I never thought I would find a teen that liked operas!" Kyle cheered.

"Why? Do you like them, too?" She asked, surprised. She had never seen anyone who liked operas.

"You're kidding me? I love them!" He said, entering in the restaurant and holding out a chair for her. "What's your favorite?"

"Turandot!" Sam said immediately, "I think it's the most beautiful love-story I've ever heard. And Nessun Dorma is my favorite piece as well." She grinned. "Isn't it wonderful? The melody is so sensual… and the story…A princess that hates men and kills all princes that don't deserve her heart. She's so cruel and cold. And even with that personality the unknown prince still falls in love with her because he's equally cold and sadistic. It's so… dark and perfect."

Kyle smiled at Sam, understanding her completely. When she started talking about the opera he knew the reasons why she liked it, he knew she was more like Turandot than she'd ever knowledge.

"You seem to treat your princes like Turandot." He laughed, making her blush. "I bet that if you could I would be headless right now."

"Yeah… I was planning on poisoning your soda." She laughed, hiding the fact that she had seriously thought about it. "And what's your favorite opera?"

"La Traviata, from Verdi." He said and smiled when he saw Sam's eyes shine in interest. She knew that opera as well. "My favorite piece in this play is "Libiamo ne'lieti calici", you know, the toast scene."

"Of course I do." She smirked, starting to sing her favorite part, as if reading her mind; Kyle sang with her the same lines _"Ah! __Godiamo! La tazza e il cantico/ la notte abbella e il riso/ in questo paradiso / ne scopra il nuovo dì." _

"Oh my, it's a shame you're have a boyfriend, I'm thinking that this marriage thing may be a good idea!" Kyle laughed, "I didn't expect you to speak Italian."

"I didn't think you'd like operas!" Sam laughed. "We gotta go watch one together!"

"If you want to, I heard Tosca will premiere in NY next week. We can go there."

Indeed, they were having a great time together… and that only increased Danny's fury. He wasn't expecting that twist. How could Sam suddenly talk to a jerk just because he liked operas? Wasn't she going to scare him away by dancing in the table, jumping on the chandelier and all that stuff?

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Danny?" Sam called him when she saw him opening his locker the next morning. He completely ignored her. "Why didn't you show up yesterday?"

"Maybe because you were too busy flirting with Mr. Rich-ass to remember I was there with you and maybe I got tired to see you two and went home." He spat sarcastically, which angered Sam because that was _her_ trademark.

"Danny, you have no right to speak to me like that!" She replied, angrily. She looked around before continuing, deciding that if she whispered the last bit on his ear nobody would hear her "You're not my real boyfriend; I can flirt with whoever I want."

"Yeah, I know." He looked hurt and furious, with was a nasty combination "But I have been helping you to get away from the same person you're drooling over now!"

"I'm sorry, but I'm not drooling over him." Sam finally decided that she was the one to be mature enough to give up and make them be friends again. "I'm not 'in danger' anymore so if you want to stop dating and go for Valerie I'll completely understand, but I really would appreciate if you helped me fool him for a bit longer. I think he's respecting me because he thinks I'm taken."

"Is that why you came here talk to me?" Danny was still angered. "Kyle is all over you, it wouldn't make much difference!"

"Yes, it will." She grabbed a handful of his shirt so that he wouldn't walk away. "Stop this jealousy right now. I'm not comfortable with him like I am with you. YOU are my best friend, Danny, not him."

"But you seemed to have a better interaction with him…" Danny protested, finally admitting he was childish and pouted cutely, making Sam smile broadly at him and jump on his arms, hugging him tightly.

"And I just talked to him about operas, nothing else, you can't complain because you don't like them."

"I sort of left after he offered to take you to NY… have you accepted?"

"I said I would, but only if I could take you with me." She smiled, Danny sighed contently and held her close before both broke apart, smiling at each other.

"So… are you going to take me to dinner tonight?" She teased.

"Do I have to do everything he did?" Danny raised an eyebrow. "I don't have a Ferrari and I can't speak Italian."

"That's fine." She held his hand. "You don't have to do anything, I'm just teasing you."

"And talking about tease…" Tucker suddenly showed up behind them grinning madly while holding up a copy of the Affluence Magazine. "I didn't know you were sleeping together… or making out in the middle of the park." Tucker enjoyed the blushing faces in front of him. "Ah, young love."

"Which reminds me," Sam turned to Danny, changing the subject. "We have to kill a certain nurse…"

"I think we should leave it like that." Danny grinned. "Look at the students around us; they're looking at us like they finally respect us."

"Danny Fenton, I can't believe you'd use some rumor to rise to popularity!"

"I don't really care as long as we don't get in trouble." Danny grinned, "Now, milady, can I walk you to your next class?" He offered her his arm which she gladly took.

"Which reminds me, are you ready for the discussion?" Tucker asked, worriedly.

"Of course." Sam cracked her knuckles. "Paulina will go down in two minutes."

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Let's begin the discussion now, I remind you girls that you have ten minutes to introduce each sides of the discussion." Mr. Lancer said, sitting down on his desk.

Paulina stood up and walked to the front of the class with a paper in her hands.

"Love exists." She said proudly. "Love is like oxygen and everybody knows that. It may not be the greatest love of all, but everybody have felt love, the love for our parents, for our family, friends. The tiny love we feel daily is nothing compared to Love, the kind Plato philosophized about, but still exists. When you feel warm to see that special someone, intoxicating, life making kind of love it's when you know that Love is there. You wouldn't be here if your parents didn't love each other. Love is what makes the earth turns and mankind to keep going. Without love, what reason do we have to live?"

"Very well, Paulina." Mr. Lancer noted down what she said and waited for Sam to start. Paulina bounced back to her seat happily and looked at Sam like a vermin who was about to be squashed.

"Very well," Sam stood up and walked to the front of class. She didn't have a paper with her. "I'd like to start this discussion with a very interesting example from Sagan. If I tell you right now I found a dragon and I am hiding it in my garage, who would believe me?"

A few students raised their hands, making the rest of class laugh hysterically; Danny almost raised his hand, too, remembering the dragon ghost, but decided to stay quiet and listen to Sam.

"If you showed us the dragon we would believe it," Paulina said.

"Let's say the dragon is invisible." Sam smirked.

"I'd say you're lying." Danny said. "Uh… not really." He remembered that he could turn invisible, so why couldn't the dragon? "I'd ask if I could feel, smell or hear it."

"And I say the dragon is intangible and soundless."

"I say you're lying!" Tucker replied, laughing. "We need proofs, Sam, proofs we can try with our five senses."

"So my word of having a dragon isn't proof enough." Everybody agreed. "It's the same with Love." She grinned, seeing that people were staring at her like she had grown a second head. "Someone tell you that they're in love. Do you see 'love'? Do you hear 'love'?"

"I see a person who's in love's goofy face." Danny said, mimicking his goofy face making all the students laugh. "I think that's proof enough!"

"Not for me. I see a goofy face, that's all."

"But you can feel love, it's different." Paulina protested.

"Really? Let's use your example: you believe your mother loves you, right?" She nodded. "And I say your mother likes you, it's affection because you've been with her for years and she's used to you, she worries about you because she's used having you around and she'd be sad if something happened to you and you wouldn't be able to be there anymore."

"It's not! She loves me!"

"Can you prove it?"

"She cooks for me, she makes my bed, and she tucks me in." Paulina started counting.

"So, if someone cooks for you they love you? I'll return in five minutes with a pie and you'll know I love you then." Sam grinned, making the students laugh. "Your maid makes your bed, does she love you?"

"Fine, I can't prove somebody else's love." Paulina finally gave up. "I can't feel it for them."

"But you're sure you are able to love, right?" Sam continued and Paulina nodded. "Can I believe you?"

"No, you can't feel it for me so I think you can't." She answered, feeling like she was loosing the discussion, which was making her very angry.

"You say that when you're feeling warm and shivering you're in love," Paulina nodded again. "I say you have a fever."

Danny laughed so hard he fell on the ground. Tucker laughed, too, recording the discussion in his PDA.

"What do you call what you feel for Danny then?" Paulina raised an eyebrow, skeptically. "I heard your relationship is a bit more serious than we thought."

Sam finally felt cornered. If she admitted she didn't like Danny she'd ruin the pretend game and if she said she liked him she would be ruining the point in the discussion. Finally, the answer came to her.

"I am attracted to him. What two people have is temporary attraction towards each other. It's instinct; people choose the best pair to continue the species, like dogs, like lions, like insects. You can sleep with someone to reproduce only… of course nowadays we know that the pleasure is better so we try to stop conceiving, but I'm talking in the origin of the species."

"Miss Manson." Mr. Lancer interrupted her. "How many books have you read for this discussion?" He asked, impressed.

"The Origins of Species, of Darwin, of course, The Five Ways of Agrippa, Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan… and I'm using some other strategies I've read randomly…" Sam explained, blushing slightly.

"Does someone still believe in love?" Mr. Lancer addressed the class with a smirk. Nobody moved. "Well… so, as sad as it is, our discussion reveled that love doesn't exist."

"You can still go out with your boyfriend, though, Paulina." Sam smirked, walking back to her desk. "You don't have to stop enjoying life because of this small discussion."

Paulina was feeling so humiliated that she swore she'd get her revenge somehow.

"Fenton," Dash called him in a whisper. Danny was suspicious, but leaned forward to hear him out anyway, "How many times you made her scream 'I love you'?" He laughed. The students around them laughed, too. Danny blushed and didn't know how to answer. Sam had heard Dash as well and turned around to look him lovingly in the face to answer him.

"I don't have to say it, you know." She smirked. "It's not the words that count, but the screaming, but of course, you wouldn't know that."

Dash was left without any more comments, staring at Sam unbelievingly furious and Danny was left with his cheeks burning. How could Sam joke like that? They hadn't done that! And he didn't know if she was a screamer… though he'd like to find out.

Dude… she was a special one.

**Okay, I've received some reviews saying that it is disgusting to marry your cousin. So, it is not like Sam's parentsand Kyle's parents are brothers, it is their grandparents that are brothers. And I have based Sam's situation in a real story. It happened to my high school friend. Her family made her marry her cousin when she was only nineteen, she didn't complain because she accepted the 'family responsibility' (unlike Sam). Today she's twenty one and is pregnant of her first child. I see her everyday in college (she didn't give up studding), but she'll never get a career because as soon as classes end, she'll be a housewife, stay home and raise the kids. **

**It is weird how she accepted putting her life aside to be a married woman, but I don't think it is weird to marry a cousin. Rich families do that to keep the inheritance IN the family. Is it weird? Yes, but it happens. Life is weird. **

**And just because I like to spoil my lovely readers here's a preview of the next chapter. Since I'm so nice what about lots and lots of reviews? **

"_Sam… I had a lot on my mind, but I swear I didn't stand you up on purpose." He begged. He turned human to reveal he was wearing his casual jeans and a new polo shirt on, looking very handsome. _

"_Were you going out when I called you?" She asked in curiosity. _

"_What? Oh, no." He realized she was talking about his clothes. "I just put up them on before flying here; I thought you'd still be interested on the date…" He gave her a small smile. "The reservations are up until nine." _

"_You have reservations?" Sam asked, incredulously. _

"_I told you it was going to be a fancy date."_

**Now, be a dear and review. The next chapter may come out sooner if you do…**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

To say that Danny was enjoying being Sam's pretend boyfriend was not enough to describe how happy he was. In their free period, Danny got his gorgeous best friend to sit on his lap and kiss him like there was no tomorrow just outside school in the grass with students watching them with their mouths hanging open.

Kyle had passed by them, pretending to not see them at all. Danny had his eyes half open when he saw his rival passing by their side. Danny pressed Sam's body harder against his, enjoying torturing him.

Sam had her back turned to Kyle so she couldn't see the silent battle going on between the two boys. Even though Kyle was acting like he just wanted to be friends with Sam, Danny could read in his expression how much he desired that girl. Little did she know, that she was wanted more than she imagined. Kyle was wishing she didn't have Danny and Danny was wishing he could be with Sam without having to pretend.

Wasn't he supposed to be thinking of Valerie?

Danny closed his eyes in delight when he felt Sam coaxing his lips with her tongue.

Who's Valerie?

He softly parted his lips from hers to look at her face. She was breathing quickly and shortly. She was flushed. Her chest was raising and failing rhythmically. He could watch her forever. He smiled, caressing her neck softly, pulling her hair back.

It was so wrong… but he was going to use the pretend as an excuse from now on.

"I'm picking you up at seven." He said, giving her a quick peck before helping her stand up before he did.

"You're going to pick me up?" She asked, surprised.

"Of course, why wouldn't I?" Danny replied, confused.

"I thought we were just going to meet at the Nasty Burger or the mall…" She interrupted her line, waiting for him to complete her sentence.

"Nasty Burger?" Danny looked down at her with a huge grin. "Do you think I'm taking my girlfriend to somewhere as cheap as a fast food restaurant?"

"Danny, you know very well that you-" Sam tried to explain that she didn't want him to have trouble for a fake date, but he interrupted her in the middle of her sentence.

"I'm doing it right. True or not, we're going to be seen together so we're going to be in a fancy and mushy restaurant."

She tried to protest. But he silenced her with his hand. She finally gave up and shook her head, disapprovingly.

"I'll see you at seven, then." She gave him a small smile and entered the school for her last period.

Danny guiltlessly watched her hips swaying as she ran from him. She was his, even if it was just pretend, and that made him feel incredibly possessive.

When she was out of Danny's sight, Kyle approached her awkwardly. She smiled to him and greeted him unlike she had been doing in the past days, since now they were in friendly terms. He gave her a small white rose and walked away, saying he had 'important things to take care of.' Sam smiled at him and turned around, going to school.

Danny didn't enter school; he was looking for Tucker to go to class with him. Tucker had gone to the back of school saying something about milkshake and chips, but Danny didn't catch what he had said because he was too anxious to feel Sam lips under his. He searched for Tucker behind the trees and bushes and finally found him.

Danny's blood ran cold the moment he set his eyes on his friend. Tucker was sitting at a table, kissing Valerie.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sam tried on a black dress. It was strapless, body hugging and ended in the middle of her thighs. She sighed in frustration. It didn't look very gothic. Oh well, at least it was black. She wanted to wear a dress that wouldn't drag too much attention while she was with Danny, but it seemed that among all the dresses she had that one was the only decent enough for a fancy restaurant.

The clock indicated that Danny was already half an hour late, but Sam had seen it coming (he was always late) and tried on her boots. She sighed again when she saw that they wouldn't match the delicate dress, she took them off and put on a pair of sandals. 'What have I become?' she asked herself when she saw her reflection in the mirror.

She started putting on her make up, but stopped when she saw her usual lilac lipstick. Well, she had tried a new dress why wouldn't she try a new lipstick color? She opened her make up box and found a light pink one… the 'name' of the color was 'fairy dust'. 'Who is the genius that names the colors?' She thought. She put it on and looked at herself. Her eyes were standing out with no strong color to match them; they were unique in her face.

The clock indicated that Danny was an hour late and unless he had been stopped by a very powerful ghost, he should've arrived already.

She picked her cell phone and dialed his number. Danny answered the phone on the third ring and sounded very depressed.

"Hello?" He answered with a tired voice.

"Danny? Are you okay?" Sam asked, more annoyed then worried.

"Fine, why do you ask?" He imitated the annoyance in her voice.

"Oh nothing." Sam replied, intensifying her anger with a sweet voice that made Danny fear for his life. "It's just that I have been dressing up for an hour because I had a fake date with someone and he didn't show up…"

The silence in the other side of the line made Sam smile in satisfaction; she knew Danny had forgotten their date and knew that now he was having horrible crises of guilty conscience. His penalty for standing her up would be death by torture.

"Sam… I completely forgot about it." He said, his voice sounding very different, sounding very, very guilty.

"Really? I didn't notice." She replied, sarcastically.

"I'll be there in five." He said quickly, but Sam was fuming and wouldn't give him a change to apologize properly.

"Don't bother." She replied, hanging up before he could reply.

She threw the phone to the other side of the room with such strength that it was amazing it didn't break in a thousand pieces. She fell back on her bed, her knees hanging out of the bed. She was angry and she wouldn't cry because her best friend forgot their fake date. It was ridiculous. She was the one telling him to not bother in the first place; she had no right to be angry at him now.

The temperature dropped several degrees and Sam closed her eyes stubbornly, already knowing who was there to disturb her peaceful sulking time. She expected him to throw himself to her and beg for forgiveness, but that never came. He didn't even dare touch her (which surprised her a lot).

She opened an eye to see what he was up to and found him standing in the middle of her room eyeing her like she was a piece of chocolate cake. Was he drooling over her? She shook the thought away, thinking of it as something really ridiculous and sat up, glaring him angrily.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to apologize…" He said, loosening the collar of his ghost jumpsuit. "And take you to our date?"

"After you forgot about it?" She raised an eyebrow cockily. "I don't think so."

"Sam… I had a lot on my mind, but I swear I didn't stand you up on purpose." He begged. He turned human to reveal he was wearing his casual jeans and a new polo shirt on, looking very handsome.

"Were you going out when I called you?" She asked in curiosity.

"What? Oh, no." He realized she was talking about his clothes. "I just put up them on before flying here; I thought you'd still be interested on the date…" He gave her a small smile. "The reservations are up until nine."

"You have reservations?" Sam asked, incredulously.

"I told you it was going to be a fancy date." Danny pouted. "Please, don't be mad." He offered a hand to help her up.

"Danny…" She sighed, accepting his hand. "Why did you forget it?" She asked, calmly, but not hiding her disappointment.

Danny sighed and put his hands on his pockets. He walked by her side out of her room, down the stairs and to the street.

"I saw Tucker with Valerie." Danny finally said.

"What?" Sam stopped walking in shock.

"I know it's unbelievable." Danny said. "He knew I liked her…" He looked down, feeling completely betrayed. "He's my best friend…"

"Oh Danny… I'm killing Tucker for you, if you want me to." Sam said, trying to make him feel better. Danny gave her a polite smile and put one hand on her shoulder, holding her closer while they walked. He didn't have to answer her. Tucker had some explaining to do.

"You know…" Danny gave her a small smile. "For tonight I was planning on forgetting about it. Let's enjoy ourselves. Tomorrow I'll corner him." He gave her a kiss on the forehead and resumed their way to the restaurant.

The restaurant Danny chose took Sam's breath away. She was very glad she decided to wear a dress like she did because the place was really fancy and they were specialist in vegetarian food. She would kiss him for that if they weren't just friends.

Oh… wait a minute… she could kiss him.

Danny looked down at Sam to see her reaction when he pulled her inside the restaurant, but when he looked at her he saw that she was staring back with a grin. He was going to ask her what was going on when she lifted herself on her tiptoes and kissed him sweetly on the lips, taking him by surprise.

'Why did she do that?' His brain screamed. 'Oh… that's right, we're pretending.' He smiled at her and was going to kiss her back when a waiter came to them asking for the reservations.

Danny was a perfect gentleman. He pulled the chair out of Sam and waited for her to order. He sat in front of her and reached out for her hand every time their hands were free. Sam thought that whoever was going to date Danny for real was going to get a very dedicated boyfriend.

They chatted animatedly about everything. That is, everything but Tucker and Valerie. Danny made her blush commenting on her dress, sandals and make up. He noticed how her eyes stood out with the light make up she had applied and how hot she was in that dress. Of course, he didn't use those same lines to her.

"I think that if you stopped wearing the tights, the baggy skirt and boots you'd be on the top list of the most beautiful girls on Casper High." He enjoyed seeing her blush.

"Well, I think I enjoy my unpopularity." She defended herself casually, not looking at him in the eyes.

"So, the special treatment is just for me?" He smirked.

"Just for tonight." She answered, busing herself with her orange juice.

"Then I'll have to take you to more dates."

Sam was going to answer him in her sarcastic way when the waiter came to them giving the check Danny had asked a few minutes before. She saw him reading the numbers and reached out for her purse, but he reached out a hand to stop her.

"What?" She asked.

"I'm paying." He said, opening his wallet and giving the waiter his credit card.

"Danny, this is ridiculous." Sam lowered her voice. "You don't have to pay it, it's a pretend date!"

"Yeah, but my parents left me a good amount of money, so I can spend as much as I want." He grinned. "Come on; let me be a gentleman this once."

"It's unfair…" She complained, but Danny didn't let her pay a single nickel. "Besides, I don't see a single person I know in this restaurant, so pretending is pointless."

"Yes, but what about the journalists?" He grinned. "For all I know they can be standing in the next table, they can even have a camera hidden in the waiter's pocket."

"You're paranoid, you know that?"

The waiter returned his credit card and Danny and Sam stood up and walked into the night. The streets were dark and empty, it would have been scary if they were alone, but by each other's side they didn't fear anything.

"So, are you coming over tonight?" Danny asked casually.

"Do you want me to?" She asked quietly. "I mean… now that Kyle turned out to be okay, I don't think that will be necessary."

"Do you trust him already?" He asked, trying to sound like it didn't matter, but failing miserably.

"Well, not completely, but I guess we'll be fine." She shot a tentatively smile to him.

"Okay then..." They arrived at Sam's house and she walked up the front porch. "I hope you had a good time."

"I did, did you?"

"The best." He reached down to kiss her softly and backed away quickly, afraid that someone was going to open the door again. "So... I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah… goodnight, Danny." She opened the door and walked inside, blowing him a kiss.

Danny walked lightheaded and daydreaming to his home and was only interrupted by his cell phone that had been ringing madly for several minutes before Danny noticed.

"Hello?"

"Danny, where are you man? I've been calling your house for hours and you wouldn't answer; why are you out so late? Another ghost?"

The sound of Tucker's voice brought Danny from heaven to hell in a stomach-dropping fall. Tucker had betrayed him. Tucker had stolen the girl he wanted.

"What do you want?" Danny replied, indifferently.

"I wanted to ask you about Sam, I mean, you two are not telling me anything anymore." Tucker sounded annoyed… how dares he?

"She's okay, why do you ask?" Danny sounded even more annoyed.

"Hey, are you pissed of? Did she break up with you?"

"Tucker, she didn't break up with me because we were never together, if you remember, we're pretending to date. And, yes, I am pissed of."

"Chill out man. I bet you're angry because she's not dating you for real, I mean… after all those kisses."

"I'm pissed of because my best friend stole the girl I had been courting for months." Danny finally said. He had arrived at his house, closed the door behind him and walked straight to the kitchen for no reason at all.

"Jeez…" Tucker had gone silent for a few moments. "That's one of the reasons I'm calling you…"

"Too late, don't you think?" Danny yelled. His ego had been hurt. A girl was stolen from him. He was not going to let it go that easily.

"Are you going to be immature and not let me talk?" Tucker yelled back.

"I don't want to hear you talk about how wonderful Valerie is; now I'm never going to find you, thanks to you!"

"That's right, because we're dating and differently from you, it's for real!"

Danny, being caught completely by surprise, couldn't find enough words to describe how angry he was feeling so he just hung up the phone. In his rage, he didn't notice he had pulverized the phone with his ghost powers.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Danny?"

Sam's sweet voice rang in Danny's head, he was grog from sleep. 'Stupid dreams' he thought, turning to the other side and trying to sleep some more.

"Danny, wake up."

If that was just Sam's voice in his head it couldn't have pushed his blankets away. The cold air hit his hot body and Danny woke up fully, opening his eyes to see Sam grinning at him.

"I didn't know you slept only in your boxers."

"I forgot to take it off last night." He answered sarcastically; annoyed that she had awakened him. "Why are you here in a Saturday morning anyway?"

"Because Tucker called me…" She sat up on the edge of his bed, giving a sad smile. So she knew what had happened.

"I don't want to talk about him." Danny turned to the other side, not wanting to face her.

"Danny, you know Tucker since forever, you can't throw away your friendship because of a girl." She said, patiently.

"She's not just some girl." Danny groaned. His reaction made Sam grow silent for a few minutes. Danny felt as she pulled the covers up again.

"Can I lie down?" She asked, timidly.

He grabbed the covers from her and lifted it up to help her join him. She kicked off her shoes and lay quietly next to him. He put his arm around her and opened his eyes to see hers staring back at him. Their noses were less than an inch apart.

"Why did you come here?" He asked, cuddling comfortably with her. She was better than a teddy bear.

"I was roughly awakened by my parents talking about how wonderful it was that I was giving Kyle a chance." She said, boringly. "It looks like yesterday's paper printed a picture of me at the restaurant with him… it means that today they probably printed you and me, so I ran away before they saw it."

"Then you must still be tired." Danny smiled, seeing that she was yawning.

"I'm not." She replied. "My cell phone rang when I was going to the library and Tucker told me about your fight." She felt Danny's muscles tensing up and she stared at him, almost commanding him to talk to her about the fight. "Tell me about it, please."

"I was angry because he was kissing Valerie and I lost control, that's all." Danny said, but her glare made him continue talking "He started showing off, okay? He said they're dating now." Danny tried to look away from her eyes, those eyes that always seemed to know when he lied, but she kept his eyes on hers by placing a soft hand on his cheek.

"I meant it when I said you shouldn't let a girl ruin your friendship, Danny." Sam said, "This attraction you and Tucker have for her will not last forever, but you're very good friends and it's not easy to trust someone as much as you trust each other."

"Attraction?" Danny smiled at her amusedly. "You're speaking like when you had that debate with Paulina."

"I always speak like that." Sam answered, relaxing into the conversation once more.

"Sam… do you really don't believe in love at all?" He asked, surprised. "I mean, I thought you were defending your subject like the teacher asked you to, but you sound like you really think it doesn't exist." Danny frowned.

"That's right." Sam smiled sweetly at him. "I think it doesn't exist, it's temporary attraction, just like I said back there."

Danny took his eyes from hers and pulled his arm from around her, to roll on his back and stare blankly at the ceiling. He had never heard such disappointing line in his life.

"Hey, why the long face?" Sam leaned forward, resting her chin on his chest. "Don't let my opinions get to you, they don't matter. You can believe whatever you want."

"But you don't." He said simply.

"Danny," She sighed impatiently, she didn't want to depress him with her philosophy, it was her private conclusion, and she wanted him to have his own. "I don't believe in love, but I do believe in attraction, it can last days, weeks, months, heck, even decades, you don't have to go all depressed about it."

"Why not call it 'love', then?"

"Because the word 'love' sounds too… transcendental; Like it's something magical that drive people insane in the name of something bigger than ourselves. I don't think it's all that, I just think it's something plain and simple, like attraction." She explained. Danny was staring at her, understanding.

"That's very courageous of you to knowledge that." He said. "I mean, I see people that lives for love, people that say that love is like destiny. It sounds like people who believe in it are fooling themselves in order to keep living. It's sad."

"I know." Sam caressed his cheek, grazing hers fingers over his jawbone and nose. "Life is sad." She took her hand from his face and rested it on his chest. "That's why I say you shouldn't fight with Tucker." She finally got back to the main subject. "Please, go talk to him."

"Knowing Tucker, he's probably angry right now. I'll just wait a few days for him to cool down." Danny saw that Sam was looking at him suspiciously. "I will, I promise, I'll just wait, okay?" Sam finally decided to let the subject drop;

"You know there is something else I have to tell you…" She rested her cheek on his chest "Mr. Miles installed security cameras around my house… I just saw it this morning." and drifted off in a peaceful sleep.

"It won't change a thing." He whispered to her not expecting an answer.

**Oh my goodness... I can't stop writting fluffiness... I'm addicted. Seriously, addicted. Anyway, I think I'll take longer to update next chapter (a week and a half perhaps) because I have exams (do you have any idea how hard college exams are? I'm going to die! I mean it!) and I have to finish my movie's storyboard to finally start animating the whole thing (my art director is working full time, it's almost creeping me out. The poor girl will colapse!). Anyway, I gotta go and study more. **

**Reviews are always welcome!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

Danny had tried to talk to Tucker, Sam had seen it, but it was useless. Tucker was so mad that Danny wouldn't listen to him Friday night and he spent the whole weekend and a great part of Monday completely ignoring Danny and - worse - spending his time with Valerie.

The last straw for Danny was when he saw Tucker going to his locker with Valerie. Danny saw that they weren't exactly talking so he tried to pull Tucker aside to talk to him (Sam was in front of her locker, watching him the whole time).

Tucker saw him approaching and immediately reached to Val and pulled her into a kiss, surprising both Danny and Sam. Danny walked away, hurt and disgusted. He completely gave up. If Tucker wanted to save what was left of their friendship he would have to come and talk to Danny, because he wasn't insisting anymore.

Sam was completely lost. She spent a few minutes with Tucker, then ran to Danny and from Danny to Tucker and back to Danny. By the end of the day, she felt tired and dizzy.

"I don't know if I can keep up with this" She said, panting while she waited for Danny to grab the books he needed before heading home.

"Neither can I." He answered, still sulking with the whole situation. He wanted so badly to get back at Tucker, show him how much it was bothering him, but he had no idea how to do that. Suddenly, the Techno-Geek himself showed up in the end of the corridor, looking for Sam.

Danny smiled devilishly. He knew how to get it back at Tucker. He was going to completely forbid Tucker to see Sam. Danny realized that Tucker hadn't seen them, yet. It was his chance.

"Sam?" He looked down at her and she stared back, confusedly. "I think I see Kyle." He didn't give her time to turn her head and look for him, he captured her chin between his thumbs and tilted her head up, coming down and crashing his lips into hers in a desperate kiss.

Sam's eyes were widened in surprise for a few seconds, before she closed them leaning into the kiss in complete surrender. He backed her up against the lockers. He held her by the waist, feeling the hot skin underneath his hands.

Their kisses before were tender, but this time he was forceful and demanding; needy. He coaxed her lips apart to welcome his raw passion in her mouth. Sam felt his lips turning into a smile against hers and opened her eyes to look around them. The corridor was completely empty.

"Danny, everybody is gone." She managed to say against his lips, while he took hungry mouthfuls of her.

"Just a little longer." He said, completely losing his mind. "What if he's hiding around the corner?" And he didn't wait for her to answer; he silenced her with his tongue and managed to keep her from saying coherent words for several minutes.

Danny admitted that day he had a problem. He was addicted to Sam.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Tucker was pissed of. He understood that Danny didn't want o talk to him, but he had no right to drag Sam out of his sight every time he showed up. It was not like Sam was going willingly; she didn't even know she was avoiding him, because Danny would so cleverly kiss her to oblivion.

To Tucker, it was obvious that Danny liked Sam, that she liked him back and that they had already admitted it to themselves, even though they still haven't spoken about it to each other (they were stubborn like that). So, Danny had no reason to be angry that he had lost Valerie to his best friend. He had already gotten another girl.

Danny would kiss her everywhere, in the hall, during lunch, Nasty Burger, mall, movie theatre, park, streets. In two weeks, Tucker was sure they had kissed in every single spot of Amity Park. Danny was killing two birds with one stone, as he kept Tucker away, the gossips would grow and they'd have even more lines about them in the newspaper that infuriated Mr. Miles and Sam's parents.

Tucker's last option to talk to Sam was to visit her in her house, when he was sure Danny would be somewhere else. It didn't take long for Tucker to see Danny battling ghosts over the city after his curfew. It was his chance to talk to Sam.

Tucker walked to her house and knocked on the door. Mr. Manson answered it, looking very cheerful.

"Hi, Mr. Manson. I forgot to borrow Sam's book, can I talk to her?"

"Sure, she's in her room." Mr. Manson answered, immediately turning around and sitting across a man Tucker thought was Mr. Miles and resuming their conversation about their business returns of ten percent.

He found Sam lying on her bed, listening to Helloween's CD in a light rock song called Forever and One.

"Hey, Sam." He turned on the lights and she opened her eyes and sat up on her bed, surprised to see him there.

"Hello, Tucker. I thought you had forgotten about me." She joked, telling him to sit down. He chose to sit on her computer chair. He sighed in frustration. She hadn't noticed that Danny was the one keeping them apart.

_What can I do?  
Will I be getting through?  
Now that I must try to leave it all behind  
Did you see what you have done to me?  
So hard to justify  
Slowly it's passing by_

"I tried to talk to you, but every time I approached you Danny would start kissing you." He crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm sorry." Sam blushed. "But Kyle has been around school a lot."

"No, he didn't show up for three days now. Have you asked him?" Tucker asked.

"Not really, I didn't see him home for the past three or four days now." She frowned, confusedly. "Maybe he did that because of the journalists…"

"No, he didn't" Tucker said. "Wherever he sees me he kisses you."

"Are you saying he's trying make you or Valerie jealous? Using me?"

"No, I just think he's trying to keep me from you."

"Stupid boys and their egos." Sam laughed bitterly; "But it's fair, isn't it?" She asked, sadly. "He's using me and I'm using him. I have no right to complain." Sam felt like she could start crying any moment now. She thought that Danny's growing kisses were because he wanted her, not because he wanted to get to Valerie.

_Forever and one I will miss you  
However, I kiss you yet again  
Way down in Neverland  
So hard I was trying  
Tomorrow I'll still be crying  
How could you hide your lies  
Your lies_

"Listen, Sam, I came here to find out about Kyle. What happened? You guys are not telling me anything." He grinned. "Are you and Danny getting serious or is it just pretend?"

"It's just pretend of course." She answered quickly. "Kyle and I are hanging around just enough to satisfy our parents. He thinks I'm in love with Danny so he backed away and is respecting my decisions."

"But Kyle is off your back, then?" Tucker asked, still concerned.

"Sort of. We're friends, but I think he'd try something if I wasn't with Danny." Sam explained.

"When are they going away?"

"In two weeks."

"So, in two weeks you and Danny will break up?" Tucker asked, uncomfortably.

"Yes." Sam sighed. "You know, you should talk to him, he's still obsessed with Valerie."

"I know, I tried to explain everything to him." Tucker stood up, pacing around the room. "I was talking to her and it just happened, I don't know who kissed who, but there we were and enjoying every second of it."

_Here I am  
Seeing you once again  
My mind's so far away  
My heart's so close to stay  
Too proud to fight  
I'm walking back into night  
Will I ever find someone to believe?_

"Danny still likes her… but he has to understand that you like each other." Sam sighed. "You'll have go talk to him. Explain it to him."

"Sam…" Tucker watched her curiously. She liked Danny, she had never denied it, but there she was, still defending his interest in another girl. Instead of taking the chance to make him hers, she would let him choose, even if his choice wasn't she and she'd defend his choice and support him for as long as she could keep wearing her smiling mask. "You like him… you should show it to him."

"It's a silly crush and it shall pass." She smiled. "It doesn't hurt that much."

"He's torturing you." Tucker insisted.

"No, he's doing what I asked him to." Sam defended him once more.

_Forever and one I will miss you  
However, I kiss you yet again  
Way down in Neverland  
So hard I was trying  
Tomorrow I'll still be crying  
How could you hide your lies  
Your lies_

"I mean it, Tuck." She said, standing up. "You better go talk to him and don't think about me, I'll be fine."

Tucker gave her a helpless smile and messed her hair with a heavy hand on top of her head, making her laugh.

"You take care. I'll see you tomorrow." Tucker said, walking out of her room and closing the door behind him. He had made up his mind. He was going straight to Danny's house.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sam watched Tucker from her window. He was taking the street for Danny's house instead of his. She smiled sadly when she watched her friend go away.

She didn't know Danny was using her to make Tucker and Valerie jealous. She wouldn't mind if he had asked her, but he had gone and done it, not requesting it first.

It was like a cold shower. She was hoping he was finally seeing something in her, seeing her in a new light, like a possible girlfriend, but now Tucker made it clear that Danny wasn't thinking like that. He had Valerie in his mind the whole time.

Maybe she was asking too much of Danny. She thought that maybe someday he'd see her differently, but now when she looked over the situation they were in, she realized how stupid she had been. Danny wouldn't look at her differently because he had no interest in her. She was his friend and she'd always be.

He could kiss her, caress her, be tender, share the bed and everything they were doing lately, but it didn't change the fact that he was cuddling with his best friend and not with his girlfriend.

He wasn't attracted to her.

That was when all her hopes died.

That was when her heart started bleeding.

And she had no shoulder to cry on.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Danny Phantom had just phased inside his living room holding the thermos with Walker inside when he saw Tucker sitting on the couch, waiting for him.

"What are you doing here?" Danny asked, taken by surprise.

"I'm here to set things right." Tucker said, not rising from his spot.

Danny took a deep breath; he really wasn't in the mood for conversation right now. Walker had almost beaten the crap out of him and he insisted he wasn't trying to capture him, but another ghost that had escaped.

"Fine, just give me a minute; I have to drop Walker back in his place." Danny said, walking down to the basement and empting the thermos inside the Ghost Portal.

"Listen to me, child," Walker threatened before going, "You better watch your back, I'm going to get you for this."

"I will." Danny answered, tiredly before closing the portal. "Walker will never learn." He became human again and climbed the stairs back to the living room. Tucker hadn't moved a muscle. "So, what is it that you want to talk about?"

"Don't play dumb with me, dude. You know what it is about." Tucker said, in his usual way, showing Danny he wasn't mad.

"About you and Valerie." Danny sighed, sitting down in the other ending of the sofa. "Okay, you can tell me, I will listen to you."

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sam's heart was beating wildly and she knocked on the guest's room door. It waspast midnight and she needed to talk to somebody. Usually when she needed to talk she'd go to Danny or Tucker, but this time she couldn't talk to them. It was a matter of heart and she couldn't trouble them like that.

She never realized how lonely she was before. She had just two friends in the entire world! She had never talked to anyone else. Somehow just Danny and Tucker were enough to her. She felt complete with them.

Kyle was the first boy she talked after them. He wasn't exactly a close friend, but she really didn't have anybody else. She was desperate and so she went to him.

"Sam?" He opened the door, surprised to see her there. "What happened?" He saw that her eyes were red and tired.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" She asked, timidly, twisting the edge of her skirt.

"Of course, come on in." He opened the door widely for her to pass and closed it when she was already inside.

"I'm sorry I disturbed you so late. Were you asleep?" She asked, waiting for him to tell her to sit down as if it wasn't her own house.

"Sam, sit down here." He pulled her by the hand until she was sitting on his bed. "You're not disturbing me. I'm just wondering what's going on."

"I…" She couldn't control her tears, for the first time, in front of somebody else than Danny and Tucker, she showed her weakness. She showed that she was a girl and that she had feelings. "I had a fight with Danny." She said. It wasn't true, but she was feeling like she had.

"Oh…" His eyes softened, allowing himself to embrace the helpless girl to comfort her. "I'm sorry."

"I found something out…" She sobbed on his shoulder. "He's interested in somebody else."

"What an idiot." Kyle said. "There's nobody more interesting than you."

"Oh, don't start." Sam laughed through tears. "I'm not in the mood."

"Sorry." He wiped a tear gently with his thumb. "I was trying to make you feel better."

"You know…" She gave him a small smile.She hadn't been fair to him. Kyle was really a nice guy. Maybe he was the one that was going to save her."Two weeks ago you said the opera Tosca was going to premiere in NY…"

She didn't have to finish the sentence to Kyle to understand. Five minutes later everything was settled. They were going to spend the weekend in New York and return late at night on Tuesday. They were going to spend four days together and Sam didn't think twice about skipping school.

Maybe it was all that she needed. Four days away from everything.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"I asked her, Danny, I swear I did. I asked if she was still interested in you, but she told you agreed to be just friends." Tucker finished his explanation, seeing that Danny was feeling really crushed by the whole situation.

"Well…" He took a deep breath. "Then it was her decision." He said. He could feel his ego cracking somewhere inside him. So it was what rejection felt like. "I can't really blame you."

"I'm sorry, man, but you know that I have liked her before. Then you two had that thing going and I stepped back. She just came to me again, I couldn't say no." Tucker insisted, trying to comfort Danny the best way he could by apologizing, showing him that he was only human and couldn't resist a pretty girl.

"So you're dating now…" Danny sighed, laughing at how absurd it sounded, Tucker, the techno geek, was dating one of the most beautiful girls in school.

"Yeah… we're both are." Tucker grinned, giving Danny a playful punch in the arm.

"The difference is that you're dating for real." Danny answered. It was good to have his best friend back. It was like the air was easy to breathe again.

"Yeah; but you're pretending to date and it won't stop you from kissing Sam to madness." Tucker said, "Admit you're in love with her already."

"I don't know if it's love." Danny said, remembering Sam's beliefs. "I'm scared to be just leading her on because when we start kissing it's like we're going to another world. Our private world. But how can I know is it because I like her or because we're kissing? I mean, if I kissed somebody else, would it be as good as it feels with Sam?"

"I can't believe you're still that clueless!" Tucker stood up, frustrated. "How can you think that? I mean, how you can think of Sam just as a friend when you share a mind blowing kiss every five minutes!"

"It's more complicated than just admitting feelings, Tuck." Danny walked to the kitchen, grabbing two beer cans and throwing one to Tucker. "How can I go to her and say 'hey, Sam, guess what? I'm in love with you. I know you don't believe in that crap, but I'm an idiot and I do'."

"Danny, she meant it in a philosophic way!" Tucker couldn't believe what he was hearing. "She just doesn't think there is a deep meaning in love, you can still love her, kiss her, heck, you can even marry her and it won't change a single thing."

"I know, it's just that, I'm afraid she doesn't feel the same way." Danny said.

"Coward." Tucker laughed. "Now I understand perfectly. I won't tease you about it, but you know, you have to tell her before this pretend thing ends up hurting both of you."

"How can I?" Danny laughed. When he was going to complete what he was going to say, the phone rang. "Just a minute." He said to Tucker before picking it up. "Hello? Sam!"

Tucker smiled, and paid attention to the conversation. "You sound funny, were you crying?" Danny frowned, worried. "What are you talking about, Sam?" Tucker watched as Danny's face grew from worried to desperate.

"What do you mean 'a car to New York'? Have you lost your mind?" He yelled and Tucker ran upstairs to grab a spare phone to listen to the conversation better. "You can't start trusting him that much, Sam!" Danny said.

"I do now." Sam said. "I just need to go away for a while; I'll be back on Tuesday." Sam explained; her voice was cracking.

"Sam, you're insane!" Danny yelled. "You can't do that."

"Oh, really?" She yelled back, "Watch me!" She answered in anger. "You don't control me, Danny Fenton! I just called to tell you it's over and you need to start acting like that!"

"You're so infuriating!" Danny said.

"Yes, I am." She admitted. "And I'm sorry you had to go out with this infuriating girl for so long!" She sobbed and hung the phone on his face.

"What the hell was that!" Danny cried out in frustration. Tucker sighed and walked back into the living room. "Did you hear that? She's crazy!"

"I missed the first part," Tucker said. "You said she's going to New York?" He was confused, it was past midnight and she didn't know how to drive to NY, actually, her direction sense was so bad that she didn't know how to cross the city in her car.

"Yes, she's already out of town and she's going there with Kyle Miles for four fucking days." Danny's eyes were glowing green; his fists were glowing with ectoplasmatic energy.

"See? You're so possessive of her that you lose control when she's with somebody else!" Tucker said, knowing that it wasn't the best time. "You think of her as your girlfriend and not your pretend-girlfriend!"

"Yeah!" Danny spat. "And she just showed me that I was right all the time and that she didn't think of me like that!"

And the worse thing in the worse time ever, happened. Danny's ghost sense went off.

Both boys groaned.

**A HUGE thanks to my friend Rae who checked this chapter for me. I'm still taking my tests, so I'm not sure when I can update... but you could help me write a lot faster if you review... a lot! Reviews! Reviews! **


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight **

She should have been feeling a lot of things she wasn't feeling right now. She should be worried about her parents, about her friends, about school. She should think about all she left behind, if she had brought a spare pair of underwear, if she had brought enough money. But the only thing she was feeling at the moment was relief.

She stared out of the window. The rain was falling quietly. The small raindrops were enough to make her tense a little. She hated to drive in rain and she didn't trust anybody driving in the rain too, not even the nice gentleman that was sitting by her side.

"Do you want some music to relax?" Kyle offered, smiling at the nervous girl by his side. She was very quiet since the chat she had with Danny almost two hours ago. Danny had reacted a little worse than she thought. Nothing in the world gave him the right to tell herwhat to do and that just made her snap. Now she really was happy that she was spending four days away from him.

"That would be nice." She smiled.

"See if you can reach my bag, in the outside pocket I packed a CD-case." He said.

"Okay…" She reached the bag and pulled the item. "Got it." She said, opening it up and turning on the car lights to read the CDs. She looked over two or three before one caught her attention. "Oh my… you have Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds 'Murder Ballads Album'!" She squeaked, happily. "I'm putting it on the song 'Where the Wild Roses Grow."

She put it on the CD player and the song started. Kyle smiled down at her, not paying too much attention on the road. The music was slow and slightly dark with soft tones of violins.

"_They call me The Wild Rose_

_But my name was Elisa Day_

_Why they call me it I do not know_

_For my name was Elisa Day"_

They sang together with a smile, relaxing in each other's presence. Sam was feeling so comfortable that it as like she knew Kyle her whole life.

"_From the first day I saw her I knew she was the one_

_As she stared in my eyes and smiled_

_For her lips were the color of the roses_

_They grew down the river, all bloody and wild"_

He sang showing her that his voice was pretty much like the singer. It was obvious that he had singing classes, probably had musical initiation when he was a baby just like herself. Her parents explained that understanding erudite music would give her a status quo that almost no kid had nowadays.

"_When he knocked on my door and entered the room_

_My trembling subsided in his sure embrace_

_He would be my first man, and with a careful hand_

_He wiped the tears that ran down my face"_

She sang showing that she had a nice voice as well. She had singing classes for five years before she finally told her parents she didn't want to continue it. She also learned how to play the piano, but when she read books about the 1800's she understood that almost every decent girl in the society had to know how to play, sing or draw. It was those small artistic abilities that gave them a high price in the 'marriage market'; it was the ability to keep their husbands entertained. When Sam realized that her parents' heads worked in the logic of the 1800's she gave up playing the piano as well.

"_They call me The Wild Rose_

_But my name was Elisa Day_

_Why they call me it I do not know_

_For my name was Elisa Day"_

She sang, remembering how good it felt just to sing your worries away. When she started having to sing to entertain her parent's guests she completely took it as a task she was supposed to do. It felt almost like slavery. Every time someone arrived, her mother would call her, make her sit by the piano and start playing and singing. In the end people would say how adorable and gifted that little girl was.

"_On the second day I brought her a flower_

_She was more beautiful than any woman I'd seen_

_I said, 'Do you know where the wild roses grow_

_So sweet and scarlet and free?'"_

He sang, looking into her eyes with a different light. His eyes were not shining with compassion, which was the reason she thought he had agreed on taking her to a trip in the middle of the night, instead, his eyes showed her how much he was enjoying that moment, how much he adored being by her side. He was feeling complete.

"_On the second day he came with a single rose_

_Said: 'Will you give me your loss and your sorrow?'_

_I nodded my head, as I lied on the bed_

_He said, 'If I show you the roses will you follow?'"_

She sang, feeling her cheek heat up. She had never noticed how handsomely green his eyes were. It was almost hypnotizing to look into his eyes like that.

"_They call me The Wild Rose_

_But my name was Elisa Day_

_Why they call me it I do not know_

_For my name was Elisa Day"_

He reached out his hand to intertwine her fingers with his. Sam noticed that his hands were warm. His touch was comforting, his hands weren't calloused like Danny's. Kyle hands were soft like he was born to caress a delicate flower, like he was there just to caress her skin.

"_On the third day he took me to the river_

_He showed me the roses and we kissed_

_And the last thing I heard was a muttered word_

_As he stood smiling above me with a rock in his fist"_

She sang, reaching the dark part of the music. She remembered when her mother heard that music for the first time. She was horrified. She had forbidden Sam to hear that music again saying that it was immoral and obnoxious.

"_On the last day I took her where the wild roses grow_

_And she lay on the bank, the wind light as a thief_

_As I kissed her goodbye, I said, 'All beauty must die'_

_And lent down and planted a rose between her teeth"_

He sang, letting go of her hand for a few moments to turn the steering wheel and right after, captured her hand again as if the small time they didn't touch was enough to miss the feeling of their skins exchanging warmth. .

"_They call me The Wild Rose_

_But my name was Elisa Day_

_Why they call me it I do not know_

_For my name was Elisa Day"_

The music ended and they grinned at each other. Sam could almost see what was coming. She was going to fall for that same man she had been running away from.

"Danny hates that song," She said, just to see his reaction. Kyle's smile subsided and his eyes turned to the road again. "He said it's too sad, but he didn't understand how beautiful that tale is."

"Why do you think it's beautiful?" Kyle asked, curiously. "It's so tragic."

"Because Elisa was lonely before he came, she lived an intense romance for three days and died quickly. She died happy from the hands of her loved one. At least she lived a great romance before dying, it would be better than if she had stayed alone until she died of old age." Sam explained. "Depressing, but beautiful."

"Yeah, I guess I agree with you." Kyle laughed. "It's better love for few days than never love at all." They were exactly two miles from NY now. "But I think it's better if you have an eternal love."

"If it existed, I guess it would be boring." She laughed and Kyle frowned. "Really. Can you imagine being with the same person for all eternity? Always the same lips, same eyes, same hands, same personality. Wouldn't you grow tired of it?"

"If the passion was still there…" Kyle couldn't find a good argument to reply.

"Can passion last that long? The same passion from the first months of relationship fades away as people get used to each other."

"I can't convince you of otherwise, can I?" He grinned and changed the subject. "You have a nice voice."

"Do I?" Sam blushed. "I usually don't sing when there's someone with me, I mean... my voice is not exactly a pleasant one."

"You're mistaken. Your voice is beautiful." Kyle smiled. "Can you keep a secret?" Sam nodded, her eyes shinning in curiosity. "I've always wanted to be an opera singer, but my father won't let me join music school to seek a career. He thinks arts and music aren't suited for a businessman. He doesn't want me to go all soft and sensitive."

"That's so sad!" Sam said, recognizing her own story and dilemmas in his situation. "Parents never understand. It is horrible when you grow up and realize your parents aren't exactly those two perfect and ideal people you wanted to be when you grow up. It's sad when you realize you don't share the same ideas anymore."

"I don't know why it happens. I grew up hearing their opinions, thinking like them. It is just that one day when I watched The Three Tenors concert I thought 'I want to be like them, I want to sing!' and I just wanted to sing and see the world from that day on." Kyle explained.

"You have a beautiful dream." Sam said, looking around and realizing they had just arrived in New York City. "I still don't know what I want to study; I just know that I want to pursuit a career, not a marriage." She turned around and faced Kyle with a big smile. "But I still have time to decide. You, in the other hand, are nearly eighteen years old, you can pack your bags and leave your parents house, go and seek your dream, forget about what they say."

"Do you know any hotels that maybe have spare bedrooms tonight?" He changed the subject after giving Sam a smile.

"I've never been to New York before…" Sam said, looking around at the tall buildings of Manhattan. The sun was already rising. "We better find somewhere to stay; we've been up all night."

"I see a hotel ahead, I'm stopping there."

"Good, I'm tired."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sam's cell phone started ringing as soon as she closed her eyes to get some sleep in the hotel room's bed.

Kyle was currently asleep on the couch across the room and hadn't woken up with the noise. She looked at the number quickly and saw that it was Danny. A wave of anger passed through her and she turned the cell phone off, not intending to turn it on again until Tuesday.

She hit the pillow again, sleeping immediately. Somehow, she was feeling like never returning to Amity Park, never to see Danny again… after all, his heart belonged to Valerie.

What was happening to her? Suddenly she felt so angry, she couldn't remember happy moment she had shared with Danny. Suddenly, his name became unbearable and her dreams became nightmares.

_Sam remembered that day when she was thirteen years old and had invited Danny and Tucker to watch her performance on Olympic Gymnastic. She had won the local competition and now she was on the route to state medal and if she did it she could go to National and then to the glory of Olympiads. _

_She was feeling really nervous when she peeked the crowd, looking for them. Tucker was there, sitting beside his mother, who was with Sam's family, but the Fentons weren't anywhere to be seen. 'Oh, that's right, Danny… it's doesn't mean anything to you, does it? It's just a stupid medal!' _

_The performance started, but she couldn't concentrate. She danced, turned and got ready to run to perform the mortal doubles and triples jumps she had rehearsed. She run, and run and run. She pushed against the ground, jumping as high as she could, doing the first double, then she hit the ground again and jumped for the triple, 'stupid Danny!' she thought in midair and bang, she hit the ground with her shoulder, breaking her arm in two places. _

_There was once when she had called him over for a movie night in her private movie theatre. Tucker hadn't gone because he was sick, but Danny had no excuse. Sam had bought a box with the entire filmography of Tim Burton (along with Fellini's, but she wasn't going to call them to watch that, it was better to watch alone.). She waited for him until she dozed off on the couch. _

_The next day he called her telling he hadn't gone because he had found Paulina crying at the mall and it was his change to get closer to her. Of course he wasn't successful, but at least he hadn't missed the chance. _

_And of course, that was the worse thing he did that ended hurting her more than he'd ever know. He had gone in dates with Valerie and when she found out it was all Tecnus' trick to keep them busy while he took over the satellite in space, he laughed at her and said that he wanted to be with Valerie. Sam pushed her feeling aside to make him happy. She had never told him how much that hurt. And she still kept that stupid ring she refused to look at. _

While Sam slept, a single tear run down her face. Kyle stood up, leaning over her. He smiled sadly and brushed the tear away with a careful thumb, kissing her cheek softly.

"You're special, Sam…" He whispered softly on her ear. "I'm sorry for making you go through this entire marriage thing…"

If she was with him there would be no more loneliness, she wouldn't be the second girl in a man's heart. She was going to be the first, she was going to be loved, cherished. She was going to be treated like a queen.

He caressed her cheek and his fingers trailed down to her neck, her shoulders and her arms.

He could give her a castle. He could give her a hand in her protests and rallies; he could help her deliver food to poor countries. He could and he would do everything to keep that beauty to him, like a porcelain doll, wrapped in a ribbon and placed carefully in his heart where it would not break.

He watched her sleep and he could watch her sleep forever. Her slender, feminine form clothed in silk and surrounded by satin sheets that made her look older than her sixteen years.

Her face was filled with pain and longing. For a moment he wondered what she was dreaming about.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sam tried on a long dark red dress with black lacy she had brought to go to the opera. She never understood the tradition of going to the opera with long dresses and elegant hairs. She was going there to watch and hear the performance, not to show off. In the beginning of the century, the tradition could have made some sense, but nowadays it was completely meaningless.

She tied her hair up in an elegant knot and quickly put on the matching pair of high heels.

"I'm ready!" She called and Kyle entered the room immediately, to finish getting dressed.

"You look beautiful." He said and when she blushed he decided to change the subject. "So, do you know how to make a tie knot?"

"You don't?" She asked, unbelieving.

"No, I don't wear fancy clothes… to tell you the truth, I really hate them." He said.

"Come here, I'll help you." She grinned, grabbing both ends of the tie and starting to move it around. She obviously knew what she was doing. "There." She announced, turning him around to face the mirror. The knot was perfect.

"How did you learn to do that?" He asked, impressed.

"I used to do my daddy's ties." She smirked. "I thought it was cool, though I still wonder why."

"Your parents raised you to be the perfect housewife, didn't they?" Kyle sighed and Sam nodded. "But you go rebel all of sudden. Really, I adore you for it." He laughed.

"Let's go, the opera starts in thirty minutes." Sam said, smiling at him. Kyle surely was adorable.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"I knew she was going to die, but this is so sad…" Sam said, hiding her emotions the best she could when they walked out of the opera. Kyle put his jacket over her naked shoulders to protect her from the cold night air.

"Yes, it is… I loved the music pieces." He said, pretending to not notice a small tear that had escaped Sam's eyes, which she quickly brushed away. "Would you like to go somewhere to grab some junk food?"

"I'd love to." Sam said, grabbing the arm he was offering her, gently. "You are a gentleman." She said.

"You see, there is something I have meaning to tell you…" He said, completely ignoring her compliment and saying seriously as they walked through the bright streets of Broadway. "I came to you as your fiancée and I admit I didn't like the idea as much as you did."

Sam looked up at him, surprised.

"I never had a girlfriend. I've never been in love." He continued. "And my father told me how important it is to have someone to inherit our legacy."

"You mean, a child?" Sam asked surprised. "Your father wants us to have babies so soon?"

"I thought it was weird too even because I could marry any girl if the point was getting a child, so I spent the last few days checking some banks and the company's archives." He explained. "I found out that we're bankrupt." Sam frowned, but didn't interrupt him. "That's why he wants me to marry you. He wants your family money."

"Why are you telling me this?" Sam asked, surprised.

"Because I fell for you." He said, getting close to her. "I can't lie to you like that."

"You mean… you like me? For real?" Sam was speechless.

Kyle nodded.

"Why were you so insistent at first? You said you didn't like the idea arranged marriage thing from the beginning." Sam asked, completely confused by the turn of events. So, it was all about her family money; she had thought about it and she knew that there would be no way she wouldn't suspect of men's intentions when it was about feelings for her along her life.

"It was your mother's idea." Kyle laughed. "I'm sorry, but at first it was sort of amusing." He saw Sam getting really angry at him and raised his hands. "No, I didn't mean it like that! I wasn't just teasing you!"

"So what was it, then?" Sam asked, annoyed. "Why did you turn into a creepy stalker? Why did you make my life hell in the first weeks?"

Kyle sighed and looked around. He saw that she had a curled hair bang hiding her cheek. He smiled and tucked it behind her ear.

"I didn't want you to like me." Kyle said in a whisper. He was standing in front of her, both had stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, forgetting it all about the world outside, about people that passed by them in a rush, about other couples that looked so childish. "I didn't want to marry you, but I had to show my father I was trying to get closer to you."

"So…" Sam blushed. "We were pushing each other away the whole time. We didn't want to get married from the start."

"We just used different strategies." Kyle laughed.

"In this case there's something I should tell you about Danny and I…"

**I think I see people squirming in their seats…. calm down and relax. Easter holiday is coming and I'll have the time to update another chapter (by Wednesday I'll have finished all my tests!). There is another fanfic, a small oneshot I wrote like a teaser for my new chaptered fanfic called In Love Again, but won't let me create another story (the server stops responding every time I try!), it doesn't let me review other stories or send PM messages. I wonder what is going on... I just hope I can still upload chapters for a while.**

**Well, since I ended with a small cliffhanger, I want to see your reaction. Review!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine **

It was Tuesday afternoon and Danny was sitting on the Manson's roof, looking at the street. He had been sitting there for three nights and had barely slept. His heart was crushed by each second that passed by without a sign of his beloved friend.

Why would she go away for four days with a man she barely knew? Worse: with a man she knew was trying to marry her! Danny hated Kyle. He hated Kyle for being able to get Sam away from him. He hated Kyle for being gentle after kissing her. He hated Kyle for making her forget he was jerk.

Kyle must be a ghost; he must have some sort of hypnotic power to convince Sam to spend time with him. Sam wasn't shallow; she wouldn't go for a pretty face… and wasn't falling for that pretty face until very recently and Walker had said something about a ghost that had escaped!

She had spent two weeks avoiding Kyle, and then she suddenly becomes friends with him! Danny was going insanely jealous. His head hurt and his conscience was telling him that it had been his fault somehow.

But the worse thought that crossed his head was the one that came to him when he was looking at that empty street, imagining he would never see her again. He wondered what if he hadn't been enough for Sam, if she had gotten tired of just being friends with two boys who were fighting over another girl and let her aside. He wondered if his silly crush on Valerie had somehow made Sam realize she needed more than a boy in her life, maybe she needed a man and Kyle was older than he was almost two years. He was scared that she had given Kyle a chance because she had no one else.

Once she returned (if she returned…) would they continue pretending?

He stood up and his heart skipped a bit. In the end of the street he saw Kyle's car arriving. So she hadn't lied. She really returned on the promised day. He fought the urge to jump in the car, phase in, grab Sam on his arms and fly as far away as possible. But he waited until Kyle parked in front of Sam's house.

Sam walked out with a handbag, looking completely adorable in a small red dress. Wait. Danny panicked. Sam never wore red dresses before.

She smiled to Kyle who gave her a tight hug.

Danny saw green. He had to take Sam away from Kyle.

He flew down to a corner and transformed himself back to human and called out her name, seeing that he had successfully made them break the hug.

He ran to her, waving a hand.

"Where have you been, I was so worried!" He said, embracing her and pulling her to a deep kiss.

"Danny, what are you doing?" She asked, trying to move away from him.

"I was worried!" He repeated, not really faking his concern. He was really happy to see that she was okay.

"I think you two have a lot to catch up…" Kyle said, giving them a small smile. "I'm going inside, Sam."

"I'll be right there." She told him, turning around to face Danny, completely confused. "What's up with you?"

"What do you mean?" Danny asked. "You ran away for four days with a man that forced a kiss on you. Now you suddenly decide to go out with him!"

"Just because I thought he'd be a good friend it doesn't mean I'm going out with him." Sam answered angrily. "And what about Valerie, huh? Have you finally murdered Tucker to be with her?"

"Tucker and I are talking again!" Danny defended himself. "I like Valerie, but he likes her more, I decided to give it a rest. Anyway, he subject here is YOU not Valerie." He insisted.

"What about me?" She asked. "I can go out with whoever I want!"

"I know, but I was worried. You ran away in the middle of the night! What happened?"

"I was feeling down and decided I need a quick break, that's all." She said, 'I needed a break from you and your obsession with Valerie, Danny.'

"Did he try anything?" Danny asked, looking her all over. "Did he touch you somehow? Was he impolite?"

"No, Danny, he was a perfect gentleman." She smiled. "Actually, we found out we have a lot of things in common."

Danny could have died on the spot. It was impossible! Sam couldn't be start getting interested in that jerk. There was only one plausible explanation: Kyle was a ghost from another dimension and he was hypnotizing Sam.

"It can't be true." Danny said incredulously. "You can't start liking someone else. Are you sure he likes you? For real?"

"What?" Sam suddenly felt a wave of anger wash through her. "If he likes me! What is it, Danny? Is it impossible that someone would like me? Am I that disgusting that a human wouldn't take interest on me?"

"Sam, you know I didn't mean it like that."

"I know you're only making things worse!"

"I don't want you to be with him!"

"I didn't want you to be with Valerie, but I didn't intervene!"

They both shut up, looking at each other, their cheeks flushed and emotions going raw. Danny shut his eyes, trying to think. Sam watched him carefully, noticing every detail of his face.

"Sam… are you going out with him?" He asked, calmly.

"No, we're friends." She answered simply.

"Good…" Danny sighed in relief.

"But he's interested in me..." She said. "Have you talked to Valerie?"

"No, I gave up. Tucker got her, now she's on forbidden ground." He gave a small smile.

"I'm glad you put your ego aside." She grinned, finally accepting that the bickering had come to an end.

"Are we still going to pretend?" He asked, scratching the back of his neck.

"It would be nice." She said, shyly. She couldn't look at him in the eyes when she said that. There was no point pretending anymore, Kyle wasn't trying to marry her he was just fooling his father.

"Because… you see… the Valentine Ball... Do you still want to go with me?"

Sam smiled the sweetest smile. That one smile that was so rare to see. It was the kind of smile that she'd give only for him and he completely turned to pudding everything he witnessed such beauty.

"Sure." She was going to say something else, but was interrupted when Danny put a hand on her neck, brushing her hair away and bringing her lips to meet his in a soft and sweet kiss. He broke the kiss about a minute later and realized that she was looking up questionably at him. "Why?"

"I saw someone looking at us from the window. I think it was him…" He sighed, saying the first excuse that came to his mind.

"Okay…" She smiled again.

"And I think he's looking again." He grinned, capturing her lips once again. This time he didn't care if she noticed he was making a random excuse. He wanted to kiss her.

And so he did.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Unfortunately for Danny, his parents had returned home after the two weeks they had planned. Maddie was still suspicious of her son's relationship with his best friend. It wasn't like she didn't approve, it was just that she was concerned about how serious they were becoming.

So, Danny didn't invite Sam to sleepover again, as much as he wanted to keep her away from her house these last days (who knew what Kyle could do!) he couldn't risk being alone with her in the same room with his parents inside the same house.

He lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Now he had completely accepted that he liked Sam, that he wanted her every second of his life, and that he could do anything to be with her. He had to tell her that soon. He was going to run out of excuses to kiss her on the ball and it was just three painful days away.

He smirked. Maybe he had to use the pretend excuse while it lasted. He was going to make it the best three days of his life.

Suddenly, as if she had heard his thoughts and yearnings, Sam quietly knocked on his window.

"Well, my beautiful pretend girlfriend just invaded my room during the night. I wonder what she wants." Danny said out loud, making Sam blush slightly.

"I wanted to stay here." She said, making Danny's eyes wide. "Kyle and I… we… I heard him fighting with his father and decided to spend the night out. I didn't want to hear it."

"It was about the wedding again, wasn't it?" Danny rolled his eyes.

"Just forget about it." She sat down, very uneasy.

Danny looked at her, confused. He saw that she was wearing an elegant diamond ring. His stomach sank. She couldn't have accepted him, could she?

"He said he had kept a ring to give his wife all these years and that he'd want me to keep it even if we didn't end up together." She said, quietly, looking at the beautiful jewel on her finger. "He said I was perfect for it…" Her voice broke and a small tear ran down her face.

Danny didn't know what to say. He just stood there, not daring to touch her.

"I think it would be easier if he turned out to be a jerk." She sniffed. "He said he liked me so much he couldn't keep seeing me, that it hurts to know that I belong to someone else. He's going to leave for good."

"If you like him, you should go after him." Danny said, feeling his heart bleed. Now he understood what Sam had put up with when he was obsessed with Valerie. He knew how it was to push your feelings away so the loved one could be happy.

"No, I don't like him like that. It's just that he was the very first friend I had in a while, you know…" Danny didn't need explanation. He knew what she meant. Somehow, Sam wouldn't move on and make new friends like he and Tucker had. She was stuck with them since she was a kid.

"Are you going to keep the ring?" Danny asked, casually. His heart was burning with jealously. He stared out the window to avoid her eyes. The ring she was wearing was much more expensive than the one he had asked her to keep, the one her name was craved in.

"I am." She nodded; she never doubted she would keep that ring forever. "He was the first man who took interest on me. I can't throw the ring away like that."

"Not that I mind, but…" Danny tried to change the subject slightly. "Why do you want to stay?" He opened his wardrobe, taking some extra blankets and preparing a bed on the floor (which he was going to take.)

"I can't see him." She said simply. "Might do something I'll regret."

Danny decided to not speak anymore; every time she opened her mouth he would be even more disappointed. But Sam could read his silence just as well as she could read his eyes.

"Why are you making another bed?" She grinned, brushing her tears away. "Aren't we 'pretend' dating? We can 'pretend' to share a bed."

Danny stopped moving and looked back at her in shock. Was she flirting with him? He saw her smile and decided that he didn't mind it at all.

"Come on, then." He smirked, jumping on the bed beside her, making her laugh like a little girl. "But if my parents get us tomorrow morning, it's your fault."

"I'll take the risk." She yawned, snuggling close to him and falling asleep.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Maddie Fenton was going to call her sleepyhead son for breakfast the next morning, but when she opened the door and saw that he wasn't alone.

She considered waking them up and giving a lecture about manners and respect, but when she saw how cute and innocent they looked together, she decided against it. They were holding each other like they were fluffy pillows. She turned his alarm clock off and left the room, closing the door silently to not wake them up.

After she left, it took Danny half an hour to open his eyes. He smiled at himself when he realized last night had not been a dream and that he had Sam on his bed with him. She was holding him against her like he was a teddy bear.

He fought the urge to kiss her because there was no way he could explain his actions to her if she woke up. They were pretending. He couldn't risk it now.

"Rise and shine…" He whispered in her ear, enjoying the slight shiver it caused her.

"Uhh… I hate mornings." She said, stretching and arching against him.

"I just thought you'd like to wake up before my mother came wake us." He laughed, glancing at the clock. He groaned when he saw the time, immediately understanding what had happened. "Scratch that, my mother already came to wake us and turned the clock off…"

"She did?" Sam asked, still too sleepy to make sense. "So we missed school… and we can go back to sleep."

He propped himself up in one elbow to kiss her forehead and look at her face. He could wake with that sight every day for the rest of his life.

"Are you feeling better?"

"Yes…" She said, finally opening her violet eyes to meet his blue ones.

"Did you sleep well?"

"I never slept so well in my life." She smiled, kissing the corner of his mouth. "I think I better go home…" She said, sitting up. "I'll see you in the second period."

Danny watched her leave and stood up, sighing. He was going to need an ice-cold shower…

**And again, a big thanks to my friend Rae who checked the spelling and grammar for me. Here is chapter Nine and the fanfic ends in chapter ten (there will be a chapter 11 with an epilogue) so don't miss the chance to tell me what you think about it. **

**Sam's back and Danny's adorable; I think I deserve some reviews… hint.hint.**


	10. Chapter 10

**AN- This chapter should me an M, but this site won't let me change the rating, I keep getting errors, so I just decided to warn you here.**

**Chapter Ten**

And so their pretending was over, Sam had said the night before, in Danny's room that Kyle would be gone in the morning and it left no other excuse to keep pretending. Danny met Sam at school for the second period as they had said and they spent their day normally, like they had always done before that whole pretending thing started.

Danny was dying to see a journalist in a corner, to see sneaky face daring them to kiss again, but unfortunately, nothing like an excuse happened to make Danny sweep Sam off her feet with a mind blowing kiss. The journalists seemed to have vanished a few days before Sam' small trip and the students had grown used to the idea that they were a couple. There wasn't a single teasing. Danny and Sam was a serious couple and when it became clear to everybody it wasn't fun to tease them anymore.

"Danny!" Sam came running to him before she went home. "My dress is violet, by the way." She kissed his cheek and walked away, never giving him a chance to respond. Danny stood there for a minute, wondering what she was talking about and trying to extend the lingering of her kiss on his cheek.

Oh crap, he had forgotten to get a suit for the ball! That's what she was talking about. She was really looking forward to that ball. He couldn't let her down. He ran through the corridors to the exit hoping that if he was quick he could find the proper tux in time, and as soon as he walked out the door he saw Sam standing there, very surprised, in front of Kyle.

"I thought you had left already." She said; her voice was gentler than she used to address him.

Danny turned invisible immediately. He wanted to hear everything they were going to say even though it was completely immoral and selfish, but his jealousy towards Kyle was endless; he just had to know if he would kidnap her or anything. Kyle grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the back of the school where nobody was around.

"Listen, I love you, Sam. I can't live without you." He said, desperately. His hands framed her face and he had to keep himself from kissing her over and over again. His manners were still impeccable.

"Why do you insist so much, Kyle? You know I like Danny. I already said that I like you as a friend and I accepted your ring, but we can't be together." Sam answered, hating to break his heart.

"You're mistaken." He gave her a small laugh. "I'm not asking you to leave him. I just wanted a kiss."

Danny saw Sam hesitate, but she closed her eyes and leaned upwards, accepting his kiss. Danny closed his eyes, not being able to see it.

"Save me a dance at the ball." He asked, in a whisper.

"The first dancewill beyours." She smiled. Kyle was satisfied with the answer. He let go of her, turned around and left her there.

Danny's heart was heavy; If Sam liked that man so much, why wouldn't she be with him? There she was, crying because of him, but still she refused him. Danny didn't understand.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

It was the Valentine's ball night. Danny nervously made his tie. He checked his hair, his shoes, and his underwear (you never know!). Everything was perfect. He exited his room, met his father on the living room and gave his best puppy dog eyes.

Early that morning Jack agreed on lending Danny the RV so that Danny could drive Sam to the ball instead of walk, but Jack replied that the RV was inappropriate for the situation and told him to get Jazz's car. When Jack saw Danny he remembered his promise and lend the boy the car keys.

"You behave, mister, I want this car in one piece. If your sister ever finds out I'm dead."

"Thanks dad and don't worry about it." Danny smiled and left the house. Could anyone be happier? He was taking this beautiful girl to the ball and had a very good car. Well, yes, actually, he could be happier, he could be sure that Sam was going to dance only with him that night and that her mind would be focused on him and not on Kyle.

Usually, to Sam's house it took him ten minutes on foot, but by car it barely took two. He knocked on her door and was very displeased to see her father answering it.

"Danny…" He sighed. "You see, Sam is ready, but she sat by the piano just now."

"What? She plays piano?" Danny was very surprised. He didn't know Sam hadany kind of talent expect being Goth (which wasn't exactly a talent).

"She hasn't played for years!" Mr. Manson looked very excited about it. "Come and look."

Danny was curious. It had never crossed his mind that Sam would have a thing for music. Mr. Manson opened the door for the piano room very slightly so that Sam wouldn't notice she had an audience.

Danny's breath was completely taken away. Sam was wearing a violet, strapless dress with silver jewels and shoes. Her hair was up in an elegant knot and her lips were shining with Danny's favorite lip gloss (it tasted like cherries!). She was sitting by the piano and her hands moved fluidly through the keys.

"_Oh I'll twine with my mingles and waving black hair  
With the roses so red and the lilies so fair  
And the mirtles so bright with the emerald dew  
The pale and the leader and eyes look like blue"_

Her voice gave lyrics to go with the melody she was playing. Danny felt so light at that moment that he had to check to make sure that he wasn't floating.

"_I will dance I will sing and my laugh shall be gay  
I will charm every heart in each crown I will sway  
When I woke from my dreaming my idols were clay  
All portions of love had all blown away"_

Was she an angel? Was she some kind of dark angel that had modern ideas and the pale shinning of heavens? He was proud of her at that moment. That beautiful girl sitting by the piano was his best friend and hopefully tonight she was going to be his.

"_Oh he taught me to love him and promised to love  
And to cherish me over all others above  
How my heart is now wondering no misery can tell  
He's left me no warning no words of farewell"_

'What is she saying?' Danny panicked. Had she composed a song for Kyle?

"_Oh he taught me to love him and call me his flower  
That was blooming to cheer him through life's dreary hour  
Oh I long to see him and regret the dark hour  
He's gone and neglected his pale wildwood flower"_

Danny was confused. Kyle had left? Was he the reason why Sam was sitting by the piano? Weren't they going to dance tonight before he left? Mostly, Danny felt jealousy, he was angry at Kyle for capturing Sam's attention, but he was mostly angry at himself who never took the courage to tell Sam everything she meant to him and allowing her to fall for someone else.

Against Mr. Manson's wishes, Danny knocked on the door, surprising Sam. He gave her a smile when he opened the door and she saw him. She looked like a child who was caught eating cookies before dinner.

"Danny, I didn't know you were here already." She said, still surprised.

"Yeah, I promised you 7 o'clock." He said, stretching out a hand that she gladly accepted. "I know I'm usually late, but not tonight."

"We're going then. Bye dad." Sam said, walking out of her house arm in arm with her best friend. "I'll see you there."

"You look stunning." Danny said,holding the door of the car open for her.

"You don't have to compliment me." She blushed. "Is it Jazz's car?"

"Yeah, I borrowed it without telling her. And I do think you're stunning." He said, sitting on the driver's seat. "And smelling really good, too."

Sam rolled her eyes, still doubting his sincerity and turned the radio on.

"I heard you playing, by the way." He smiled, studying her reaction. "You never told me you played."

"I used to like playing, but then I just got tired of it. Today I felt like trying it again."

"I liked it." He smiled, capturing her hands on his. "I'd like to watch you play more often if that's okay with you."

"Sure… but only when my parents leave. I don't like to play when they're around. They keep requesting songs." She smiled, holding his hand tighter on hers.

"It's settled then." He had to take his hand away regretfully to park the car in front of the school. "And we're here." He looked at Sam who was about to open the door. "Hey, wait up!" He said, then he turned around and opened the door for her. "This is what a gentleman does."

"You seriously need to stop doing that." She laughed. "And Kyle left so we don't have to pretend okay? Don't force yourself to stay with me."

"I wasn't going to." He smiled. "Really, Sam, let me be nice tonight."

"Fine, do whatever you want." She was still suspicious that it was a prank. Danny wasn't like that. It was completely out of character. "Wasn't the ball going to be in a fancy buffet?"

"Don't ask me."

Danny spotted Tucker and Valerie as soon as he arrived and immediately went to stand besidethem bringing Sam with him. The music was already playing, but nobody was dancing. Sam wondered if Kyle would show up like he had promised, he wasn't in her house and his room was empty.

To Sam, a night talking to Danny and Tucker was not exactly what she was expecting. She wanted to dance and enjoy herself, Danny wouldn't ask her. She wasn't popular so she couldn't expect to talk to new people and she wasn't interested in talking anyway, nobody there was worth more than a 'hello'. Valerie was much more into the conversation with Dannythen she was. It was a shame that it was school ball, because if there weren't chaperones and the drinks were alcoholic, she could be trying to get drunk, which would make people more bearable and interesting.

She saw Danny looking at Valerie. He gave her a smallglance before Tucker would notice. Sam was sure it was a longing look. He had given up on her, but he still liked her. She checked her watch and found that it wasfive minutespast midnight.

That ball wasn't what Sam was expecting at all.

She blushed when Danny caught her staring at him. She made an excuse and stood up, leaving the table. She took a walk around the room, doing her favorite hobby: people watching.

Unfortunately, her parents were chaperones along with Mr. Miles and Kyle, but Kyle wasn't anywhere to be found. Her father hadn't arrived, yet. She knew that if she ignored her parents the whole night they would be very upset with her, so she decided to say a small hello.

"How do you like the party, mom?" She asked, sipping on the punch, hoping it would magically become alcoholic. She was so frustrated at the moment. Why didn't Danny ask her to dance? He had spent the whole night sitting down, talking to Tucker and Valerie!

"I couldn't expect less from someone as amazing as John." Mrs. Manson said, shining in her uncountable jewels. "Although, I think you seem very distant from your boyfriend tonight. Have you had a fight?" She asked, hopefully.

"No. We're cool." Sam answered quickly. "Are you enjoying the party, Mr. Miles?"

"Do not address yourself to me." He said, disgusted, turning away from her like she was an insect and going to talk to the teachers.

"What?" She asked, surprised and angry to be spoken to like that. She never had done anything to that man and she wasn't going to take insults from him. "What have I done to you?" She jumped in front of him, looking very angry. Her mother gave a little scream, which made several people stop to look at them.

"You are an ungrateful child." He said, loud enough to make everyone in the room hear them. "And my son," He continued, seeing that Sam just stood there with her mouth hanging open. "He left hours ago crying his eyes out saying that he was going for Europe for the next months to forget about you!"

"He- what?" Sam couldn't believe her ears. Had she really broken his heart that badly? But Kyle seemed cool that same afternoon when she granted him a kiss.

"Thanks to you and your attitude my son left me!" Mr. Miles was infuriated. "What has this attitude given you, Samantha? Your mother talked to me the yesterday about you. You are ungrateful!"

"You have no right to talk to me like that, Mr. Miles!" Sam replied, looking at her mother for support, but finding nothing but tears.

"You ripped my son's heart out, how do you want me to talk to you?" He replied. Sam tried to walk away, but he held her on her spot by grabbing her arms, she yanked her arms away from him. "You started this conversation, missy, now you can't handle it? Show your friends how tough you really are!" He turned to shout at her while she was stalking halfway through the ballroom.

Sam felt all eyes on her, piercing through her like daggers. Sam understood what it was all about. It was Mr. Miles' last attempt to marry her to his son. She saw pictures being taken from her, 'so the journalists returned…' suddenly, everything became clear to her; it was Mr. Miles who had hired the journalists to follow her, he was trying to trap her like she was some kind of celebrity fearing an exposé. If there was something Sam didn't fear it was a public fight.

"Mr. Miles…" She called; her voice icy, she slowly turned around to glare him. "I have done some research about you." She said, making him stop and turn around to look at her, daring her to go any further. "Do people know that your oil company are about to bankrupt? Do people know you tried to marry me to your son to get my parent's financial support?"

Mrs. Manson looked incredulously at Mr. Miles, torn between believing on her daughter or in her cousin.

"I'm sure the tabloids will have a busy day, tomorrow." She replied, icily, "And your son went away because he was the one who told me all this. Unlike his father, he wouldn't betray a friend." And then she turned around and stormed out of the ballroom, torn between the satisfaction of finally saying all she thought about him and the pain of having destroyed her friend's heart.

Danny stood up and ran after her. He surely wasn't going to get to dance with her tonight and the surprise he had prepared for her had gone completely wasted.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Kyle!" Sam entered her house, calling for him at the top of her lungs. Her make-up was slowly disappearing. Her hair was down. Her cheeks were rosy from the cold and the running. "Kyle!" She called again.

Danny was invisible, watching her.

"Kyle, please…" She cried, dropping on her knees in the empty living room. "I didn't mean to hurt you." She sobbed. She sat against the wall, hugging her knees to her chest.

"Sam…?" Danny whispered, materializing in front of her. She didn't look up to see him there. She was using her dress as curtains that framed her protectively from everything that belonged to the outside world; Danny included.

She clutched to her arms tightly and her sobs became quieter. The sight before him broke Danny's heart completely. He couldn't bear the fact that she was broken, that she was sad because of someone else. She looked up to meet his eyes and slowly stood up, wearing on her indifference mask.

"Oh no, you won't play indifferent with me." Danny said, indignantly. He put both his hands on the wall, pinning her against it. She tried to move him away from her, but it was impossible. His arms were way larger than hers, stronger and his chest was pressing against hers, not allowing her a decent personal space. "Tell me, Sam. I need to know." He asked, sounding desperate. "Do you love Kyle?"

"You know I don't love anyone, Danny." She answered, her voice tired from crying. "It's just that I have been so unfair to him." Tears run down her face one more time. "I broke his heart."

"You didn't break his heart. For what I've heard his father did." Danny said, pressing up against her; "Answer me, Sam. Do you like him?"

"Not like that…" She left he tears flow like a river. "He knows everything, Danny. I told him about the pretending." She cried. "And I told him I couldn't be with him… because of you. I told him when we were in New York. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I just didn't want to stop pretending. I'm sorry I ruined your night."

He lifted one hand to caress her face softly.

Sam looked up to him in alarm, noticing he was pressing against her and that she was reacting in a way she wasn't supposed to. They were alone. They weren't supposed to be doing this. He was supposed to back away and be relived that they wouldn't have to be together again. Why was he getting closer to her?

"What are you doing, Danny?" She asked, breathily, as he pressed even more. Even with their clothes separating them, it was impossible to missany part of him. What she was feeling for him at that moment was like forbidden bliss.

"I'm not sure… do want me to stop?" He whispered huskily on her ears, feeling her shivering under him. When she didn't answer, he placed his hands on her waist and bent his head down, capturing her lips in an insistent and passionate kiss.

She put her hands on his chest, trying to push him away, helplessly, but her legs gave out, feeling completely weak. He held her in place by lowering his hands to her hips. He pushed his thigh up in between her legs and if it was to keep her up or to…_do something else_, she couldn't tell because it was working both ways.

He let go off her lips and trailed kisses down her neck, holding her hands up on both sides of her head and intertwining their fingers. He unconsciously pushed his hips against hers building sensations that they had never felt before.

Danny opened his eyes to see Sam's face. She had her eyes closed; her mouth open and she had thrown her head back. He panicked. What were they doing? He stepped away from her, clumsily falling backwards.

She fell down, too, sliding against the wall. Her whimpers were the only thing that broke the silencein the room. Studying her face, Danny noticed that they didn't exactly do a bad thing.

"What was that?" She asked, breathing heavily.

"You know very well what it was, Miss Manson." He grinned at her. He reached his hand forward and touched her hands, going for her arms until he reached her boneless form and successfully pulled her forward, towards him, until she was sitting on his lap. Her face was burning up. Danny moved, changing their positions so grand himself more access to her. He placed her on the carpeted floor and laid on top of her. "I thought about giving Mr. Miles a goodbye gift, if you don't mind."

"What are you talking about?" She asked, the mood completely gone.

"Haven't you seen the security camera?" Danny asked. "It's hanging on the ceiling." He was still kissing her neck, nibbling softly. "Don't worry; I was careful while changing back in my human form." He grinned.

Realization washed over Sam. He was pretending. He was still pretending. That's right; he was never going to like her for real, was he? He wasn't over Valerie, yet. He could deny it to the world, but not to her. She knew him like the back of her hand.

For what seemed an eternity, she just lay there, letting him kiss her while looking incredibly gorgeous in that tux, nib her and do whatever he wanted without responding. He explored every bit of her face his lips. He explored her mouth as fully as he could before roaming downwards, finding the soft skin of her neck and gently biting her, that action made Sam moan loudly and shakeunder himlike electricity had just gone right through her head from her toes. How could he be so passionate without meaning it?

"Danny… we don't have to do itanymore." She said, gasping as her fingers found the way up to his hair. "He's gone. I'm not going to marry anyone." His hands were less shy than she remembered. Usually they'd rest on her waist, but this time the shameless hands were groping a little too much, going up and down her body not deciding where to rest.

"But that Mr. Miles is still around… I'd like to rub it on his face." Danny said between kisses. "I want to show him he never had a chance snatching you away from me."

"Danny, we were never together." She said, breathily as he kept kissing her, each kiss more passionate than the previous one. "And I lied to you about the cameras, they were installed but they're not working, yet."

"Sam… it's not about the camera." He backed away from her looking into her eyes like he was looking into her soul. His stare made her shiver. "Just kiss me back, please?"

"Okay…" She reached up to him and gave him a small kiss on the lips before smirking. "But just because you asked so nicely." And she kissed him back with all her heart. He licked, bit and kissed a single spot on her neck, making her wonder why he was doing that.

"I'm giving you a hickey." He said, as if he could read her thoughts. Sam didn't protest, just allowed him to do what he wanted. He lowered his hands again, groping her and meaning it, not in a pretending way. He hooked her leg over his waist and Sam noticed it as soon as he put his hands on her like that that it had turned into something real. Somewhere along the road, the pretending became real.

Sam was going to ask him if he'd like to go up to her room, but they got interrupted by the front door opening abruptly. They stood up, surprised and fixing their clothes before anybody saw what they where doing in the middle of the living room. Mr. Miles and Mr. Manson walked in the living room just a few seconds later.

"Sam…" Mr. Manson said. "You have my permission to date Danny." He said, furious and turned to Mr. Miles. "Please, pack your belonging and go away, John."

"We can still do business together." Mr. Miles insisted.

"My family money stays in the family, John." Mr. Manson said. "And you're not part of it anymore."

"Thanks to your lovely daughter." Mr. Miles replied, sarcastically.

"It wouldn't be yours even if I married Kyle, Mr. Miles…" Sam said, facing him. "I wouldn't give you a penny to save your company!"

"Kyle would." Mr. Mile answered.

"You underestimate your son." Sam smirked. "One day you'll see it." She turned around, grabbing Danny's hand and pulling him towards her room.

"You want to talk about it later?" Danny asked, as soon as Sam closed the door of the room behind her. "I think you've got enough headaches tonight."

"No… I want to finish it right now." She said, kissing him again. "I think it's too real to deny it any longer." She grinned, letting herself fall for him completely. "Just tell me one thing. When did it become real?"

"To me? The first day, I guess, or during that first kiss..." He laughed, placing his hands on her waist and bringing her as close as the laws of physics allowed. "And you?"

"I realized it the night I ran away with Kyle. I did that because you were focused on Valerie and I didn't want to even hear about it." She explained, sincerely; "I told Kyle everything; he knew I was crazy about you and there was no room for him."

"I'm glad." He leaned forward to kiss her again, but she stopped with more questions. "Why didn't you ask me to dance?"

"Oh, that…" Danny laughed awkwardly when he remembered what he had planned for the evening. "You see… I was going to give you this exactly at half past midnight. I had an agreement with the DJ that he'd play your favorite song." He said, digging into his pocket and getting a small box.

"What is it?" She asked, curiously.

"Open it." He said.

Sam picked the delicate velvety box in her hands and opened it carefully. She gasped when she saw what was inside. It was a delicate necklace of white gold craved in red 'My Wild Rose.' Sam was stunned and couldn't form a single word.

"Yeah, it is that song that you like, even if it's a tragedy I understand the intensity of their love. And, well, since you like it, I thought it'd be a good idea. Sorry if it's too lame…" He scratched his neck, not really knowing what else to say, it was when Sam stopped him with a kiss, he felt a single tear on her face that he quickly brushed away.

"Thank you so much. I'm never taking it off." She kissed him again and turned around, lifting her hair up so that he could put it on for her.

The scene was almost perfect. As soon as he tied the necklace, he bent down and kissed her neck softly, circling his arms around her and bringing her close once again. Finally, they were together for real, without thoughts of Kyle, of Valerie or anybody else to disturb the peaceful course their relationship was leading.

**And this is the end... or not. I mean, there still is the epilogue. Thanks again to Rae whochecked the grammar and typosand gave me some ideas for more fluff. I think this is time to thank all my wonderful readers and reviewers. I' had never gotten so many reviews before and I am teary about it. You were so wonderful that I am thinking about writting a sequel. So, thanks again and wait fot the epilogue!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Epilogue**

"You see, I got a postcard from Kyle." Sam said, entering her bedroom where a happy and very much naked halfa was laying down, fast asleep. "Hey, wake up; we're going to miss school."

"Don't we still have an hour to go?" He groaned, covering himself with the blanket, sheltering himself from the awake world.

"We do, I don't mind but it is you who ran away from home to come here last night." She said, sitting down next to him and shaking the mattress as much as she could. "Your parents will put two and two together you know…" She didn't want to continue, but she also remembered that every eye in school was on them, because of the old rumors the teachers were suspicious if they arrived late and the last thing she wanted was to have the principal to call their parents.

"Oh, and yours are fine with it." He said, grinning and pulling his head from under the covers.

"Honey, mine are in England, remember?" She asked, sweetly, bending over him to kiss him on the lips.

"Oh right… so, you were saying something about a postcard." He said, picking her up and laying her on top of him as he kissed her lazily across the face.

"Yea, it's from Kyle. He is in Italy training to become an opera singer, can you believe it?" She laughed when Danny buried his head on her damp hair and used his skillful hands to roll them over so he would be on top. "Don't we have a double date with Tucker and Valerie?"

"I believe so." Danny answered, still too busy kissing and caressing her to answer her properly. "I could wake up like this every morning for the rest of my life."

"I hope this is not a marriage proposal." Sam laughed, answering him. "I usually turn them down." She felt him kiss her hair and caress her back. His fingers lifted her nightshirt and leaving her completely bare to him.

"It's not a proposal if you don't want it to be." Danny answered, kissing her sweetly on the lips, thinking that it was enough for conversation. They both melted into the kiss and she reached up with trembling fingers to caress his face. She still couldn't control herself whenever he kissed her. She'd shake helplessly.

He knew exactly how she liked to be kissed, experience coming from lots and lots of practice. He knew she liked it when he touched her softly with his tongue before parting her lips. She liked it slow and sensual.

They matched perfectly and they fit like they had been made for each other. She moaned desperately as he continued kissing her lips each time more passionate. Her lips were his. He owned them.

"Oh my… I love you." He said, burying his head on her neck.

"And I am extremely attracted to you." She replied, which was her usual answer when he said those three words. "And it will last for a long, long time."

"… I hope so." He said, returning to the point where they had stopped and Sam was very glad he did.

**The End**

**So The Pretend part of their relationship is over and now the real thing starts. I'm warning you that the sequel won't be as heart-warming as this one was; there will be more drama and more complications because I'm going to explore how a real and adult relationship works. Sam's disbelief in Love will be deeper explored, too. **

**They date happily until they have to part for college and when they meet again after graduation they will notice some changes. The sequel will be called In Love Again and it will show Danny and Sam' struggling to overcome their new addictions and find love in themselves all over again. **

**Just in case you're curious the sequel was inspired by several movies (I'm sorry, I am a film student, I can't help it!) that explore the odds and the joys of the relationship in a depth that is rarely seen in teenage stories. Some of the movies are Last Tango in Paris, Closer, Before the Sunset and An Affair of Love. So, if you have watched one of them, you'll have an idea how the sequel will be like. **

**Just don't worry because I am a DxS shipper and I am helplessly romantic as you can see in all my fanfics, so there will be drama, but there will be fluffy, perhaps smut.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing this story, I never thought I would get so many reviews, I'm so happy! Thanks everyone and wait for the sequel in a few weeks.**

**And Thanks Rae!**


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